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The National Trust backs badger cull plans

FARMERS WEEKLY
Caroline StocksFriday 01 October 2010

The National Trust will allow badgers to be culled on its land, provided tenants can prove they will meet criteria for a successful cull.

The trust, which owns 200,000ha of farmland in England and Wales, had previously refused to commit to allowing culling as a way of controlling bovine tuberculosis on its land.

But the trust said it would not object to culls taking place on its farmland - much of which is in TB hotspot areas - if its tenants could prove all other routes of tackling the disease had been explored.

In a statement the organisation said it had a responsibility as a major landowner to "make a positive contribution" to reducing bovine TB in cattle and wildlife.

It said it accepted there was no point in tacking the disease in cattle without also addressing the disease reservoir in badgers, which included introducing physical barriers and vaccination.

Removing badgers from its farms would also be allowed if a cull was "legal and carried out to the highest possible welfare standards as part of a package of measures that includes more rigorous approaches to reduce cattle-to-cattle transmission," the statement added.

"We would not object to culls taking place in areas that include our land, where it can be shown all other routes have been explored," a spokesman for the trust said.

"However, there are relatively few areas in the UK where these criteria can be met and developing an effective vaccination programme for badgers as part of a package of measures is therefore key to reducing Bovine TB in cattle and in wildlife in the long-term.

"The spokesman said the trust was "looking critically" at proposals put forward by DEFRA and the Welsh Assembly Government last month which set out plans to allow badger cull in certain TB-ridden areas.

"We hope to be able to open a constructive dialogue over how we might contribute to eradication of this disease," he added,

• For more details and to have your say, see our Badger Cull special report

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And FARMERS GUARDIAN

National Trust to permit badger cull on its land
1 October 2010 | By Alistair Driver

THE National Trust has revealed it will allow badgers to be culled on its land as long as the criteria for a successful cull are met.

The national conservation body has undergone a change of heart that has been welcomed by the farming industry but is likely to be controversial among its members.

The trust owns 200,000 hectares of farmland in England and Wales, much of it in the areas worst hit by bovine TB. With the proposed license criteria for a cull in England requiring access to at least 70 per cent of land, the trust’s permission for its land to be used is seen as essential to getting a cull off the ground in some areas.

Until now, however, it has refused to give any such commitment. In statement last month issued after Defra published its badger cull proposals, the trust welcomed the ‘principle of science being the basis of bTB control’, adding that ‘in the absence of scientific support for culling badgers, the right course of action must be to focus on the other measures’, including cattle controls and vaccination. It said nothing about allowing culling on its land.

But in an updated statement sent to Farmers Guardian this week, the trust said it would ‘not object’ under the right circumstances.

“If the criteria for a successful cull can be met - and it is legal and carried out to the highest possible welfare standards as part of a package of measures that includes more rigorous approaches to reduce cattle-to-cattle transmission - then we would not object to culls taking place in areas that include our land, where it can be shown all other routes have been explored,” the statement said.

It added that there were ‘relatively few areas in the UK’ where these criteria can be met and stressed that badger vaccination as part of a wider package of measures was ‘the key’ to tackling the problem in the long-term.

The statement said: “We accept that there is no point addressing cattle-to-cattle transmission without also addressing the wildlife reservoir of Bovine TB. We feel strongly that this should be done as part of a comprehensive package of measures.”

Good news
NFU deputy president Meurig Raymond said the announcement was ‘good news’ and would help ensure the required 70 per cent coverage in certain areas.

“They have responded to the science. It is so important that tenants, who are the hardest hit in terms of the human misery and financial cost of TB, are allowed to make own decisions,” he said.

Tenant Farmers Association chief executive George Dunn said: “I am pleased the trust will not stand in the way of the only viable solution to fighting bTB.”

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