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WE'LL FIGHT BADGER CULL WITH CRIMINAL DAMAGE, VOW ANIMAL ACTIVISTS

http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/news/ll-fight-badger-cull-vow-animal-activists/article-3511187-detail/article.html

4 May 2011
THIS IS DERBYSHIRE

We'll fight badger cull with criminal damage, vow animal activists

By Chris Mallett Cmallett@Derbytelegraph.Co.Uk

ANIMAL rights activists are threatening a campaign of criminal damage if Derbyshire farmers are given the go-ahead to cull badgers.

The Government has been consulting on how to deal with the spread of bovine tuberculosis.

A decision is expected within the next few months – and it is widely anticipated that farmers and landowners in several parts of England could be issued with licences to shoot badgers, which are blamed for spreading the disease to cattle herds.

Parts of Derbyshire are among the areas worst-hit by the disease and it is thought farmers here could be among those taking part in a national cull of up to 6,000 badgers.

But the proposal is mired in controversy and a spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front warned that its members could take direct action if shooting licences were granted.

The anonymous spokesman said: "I imagine individuals or autonomous groups within the ALF will try to take action to prevent the killings. This could involve damaging equipment used in the culls."

A 10-year study into badger culling, commissioned by the Government but carried out by independent scientists, concluded in 2007 that it would be ineffective in controlling the spread of bovine TB and should not be pursued.

And Derby North MP Chris Williamson, a former fox hunt saboteur, claimed that vaccination was a better route forward. "Culling is an excuse for bad husbandry and very cruel," he said.

The Badger Trust is also campaigning against any cull. It says existing measures introduced by the Government to isolate herds affected by TB were already working and points to a drop in the number of cattle slaughtered as part of bovine TB control measures – from 25,557 in 2009 to 24,899 in 2010 – as evidence.

Trust spokesman Jack Reedy agreed that West Derbyshire and East Staffordshire were historically hot-spots for the disease and said that, if culling was allowed, he and fellow members would visit local farmers to try to persuade them not to use it on their land.

But a National Farmers' Union spokeswoman said many of its members in the county had supported the idea of a cull in the Government consultation.

"Culling has to be an option. We would only ever rely on science and, despite what campaigners might say, there is evidence to suggest that removing badgers from the equation could work," she said.

Under Government regulations, cows with TB must be sent for slaughter and calves cannot be sold on until a herd is clear of the disease.

The government pays compensation to farmers whose cattle have been slaughtered. A total of £63m was spent dealing with bovine TB in 2009-10.

Etwall farmer Angela Sargent has experienced the devastation caused by an outbreak of TB, which she said could be linked to a badger sett on her farm.

She supports the Government proposal but says she would not take part in culling herself.

Mrs Sargent, 51, of Baldfields Farm, said Government officials stopped her specialist beef farm selling cattle in November 2005 to prevent the spread of TB.

The restriction, which lasted 120 days, meant 20 animals at the farm had to be sent straight to a slaughterhouse. This meant they did not get the price they would have achieved by being sold to butchers at market.

"We think the tuberculosis happened when we moved cows into a new field and it turned out there was a badger sett there," she said.

"We have a closed herd, we don't buy cattle in, so the disease must have come in on wildlife."

Mrs Sargent said two of her immediate neighbours were currently banned from moving cattle.

She said animal rights activists were taking a one-sided view of badger culling. "There's more than just badgers involved in this. The Farm Crisis Network deals with farmers that are suicidal because of the problems tuberculosis causes," she said.

Tory East Midlands MEP Roger Helmer said there was "no doubt" badgers were responsible for spreading bovine TB despite "all the froth from animal rights groups".

"I believe it's the case that many farmers take matters into their own hands already. Frankly I sympathise with them. We expect milk to be cheaper than water and yet we put all these difficulties in the way of our farmers," he said.

The consultation paper on culling drawn up by the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) says licences for culling would be "subject to strict criteria".

It says: "Badger-culling has the potential to reduce bovine TB in cattle by rapidly reducing the overall number of infected badgers, thus reducing the rate of transmission of the disease to cattle."

The document adds that cage trapping and shooting would be the only "humane" methods of culling.

Defra said a decision, at first expected early this year, had been delayed by the large response to the consultation.

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