Badger cull is a step closer in Devon and Cornwall despite opposition
Farmers will be issued with licences to cull badgers in a bid to stamp out bovine tuberculosis, despite fierce opposition from campaigners.
A senior source at the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has said the move will go ahead, despite the protests of those who see badgers as something from Beatrix Potter books and harmless Wind in the Willows characters – because it is the "right thing to do".
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Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman will give the green light for the cull to go ahead in parts of the South West, the region worst affected by bovine TB (bTB), it was claimed. Ministers fear the disease is now spreading beyond isolated rural areas within the Westcountry, posing the risk of it travelling even faster, and infecting domestic animals.
The WMN understands licences are expected to be issued in May 2011.
The senior Defra source told the Independent on Sunday the move was bound to spark the kind of protest seen in Wales, where the Badger Trust successfully launched a legal bid to halt a cull. The backlash is expected to be even stronger in England, because the exercise would be on a larger scale.
The source said: "This will not be popular with people who view badgers as something from Wind in the Willows or Beatrix Potter, but it is the right thing to do.
"We cannot go on not taking action to deal with this huge problem."
However, the official Defra line is that proposals for a cull are still being developed and a consultation process will be launched in the coming weeks.
Last year alone, 25,000 cattle were killed as a result of bTB, and the annual cost to the taxpayer now exceeds £100 million.
In the Westcountry, farmers are convinced badgers are the source of the spread of the disease, and say culling vast numbers of cattle has done nothing to stem the flow.
Jilly Greed, South West spokesman for the National Beef Association, said the latest news was encouraging for cattle farmers.
"If this is the case, it's really heartening for beef and dairy farmers who are under restriction, and seeing no hope of a solution," she said.
"There's a serious need to address this, because of the financial situation and the massive and increasing cost to tax-payers, of well over £100 million each year."
But Ian Johnson, South West spokesman for the National Farmers' Union, said members would only get excited when there was an official announcement on the cull.
He said: "The source at Defra is pointing out the obvious when he says it's the 'right thing to do', but the tragedy is it's taken officials so long to come to that realisation."
He said some "flat Earthers" would always deny the science, but said: "This isn't about culling badgers, it's about eradicating a disease.
"Those who campaign to support badgers should remember this measure would help protect healthy badgers."
Yesterday, a Defra spokesman refused to confirm that the cull would go ahead.
He said: "The government has committed, as part of a package of measures, to develop affordable options for a carefully-managed and science-led policy of badger control in areas with high and persistent levels of bTB.
"We are developing proposals which we plan to publish for public consultation in the coming weeks."
Jack Reedy, spokesman for the Badger Trust, said: "The Appeal Court recently upheld the trust's challenge to the Welsh Assembly Government's proposal to kill badgers as unlawful.
"Such killing in a attempt to control bTB is also likely to make matters worse, and it would be seriously bad news – chiefly for the farmers themselves – if any licences were issued anywhere. To call the trust and others Wind in the Willows readers is patronising nonsense that dangerously under-rates the force of the scientific evidence."
The previous Labour Government relied on vaccination as the answer to stopping the spread of TB, but former Government chief scientist Sir David King among those who believe that culling has a role to play.
However, the trust and its supporters rely on a 2008 report by the Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB, which concluded that culling would not "meaningfully contribute" to tackling the disease.
Farming Minister Jim Paice has stressed plans for a cull must be legally watertight, to ward off any court challenge.
32 Comments
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by TimV, Pz
Friday, September 10 2010, 2:37PM
“THIRD TIME LUCKY?
Very good point Luke (re. outbreaks being too far apart to implicate Badgers) which linked to there being TB in cattle on Anglesey without Badgers, confirms the point that Badgers are not the primary cause of the disease in cattle. Of course if the government allow farmers to kill badgers and incentivise them to do it, there will be a free-for-all massacre of a wild mammal species, which would be a concern to all right-thinking people. Charles writes: "Setts will need to be completely shut down for at least 6 months afterwards to ensure that all the Mycobacterium bovis bacteria in the sett has been eliminated." Yet earlier he rejected my suggestion that only infected sets, on the basis of positive faecal sampling, should be targeted. Which is it to be Charles? Viable organisms in contaminated faeces as a method of transmission or not?”
by Charles Henry 1945-(diuturnity), Somersetshire
Thursday, September 09 2010, 9:46AM
“:| "The science has always shown that culling badgers does not work."
This is the complete garbage that just keeps being repeated by what are virtually a group of Sociopaths who believe they have the right to destroy others livelihoods because they have an unnatural affiliation to badgers. Krebs was not 'science'. . It was an illogical, emotional response to prevent the necessary cull. . The British herd was declared clear of disease, and all herds in the UK were officially designated ¿Brucellosis Free¿ in October 1985. . That is ¿all such pathogens¿. . This was done by clearing(gassing) all badger setts in the vicinity of any 'reacting' herds. . That is the SCIENCE that gives the desired result that correlates with all the known facts about the bacterium Mycobacterium bovis. . What those against of a cull have successfully 'put about' is that the badger population will have to be virtually 'wiped out' which is patently untrue. . Badgers were not wiped out before, as is patently obvious, and they won't be this time. . This bacterium will not suddenly just 'go away'. It has to be dealt with. . Vaccination is a scientific 'red herring'.
Here is a clear example of how the truth has again been twisted to try and avoid the cull that most vets know will be necessary.
http://www.wildlifeonline.me.uk/badgers_tb.html
.”
by Charles Henry 1945-(diuturnity), Somersetshire
Wednesday, September 08 2010, 8:38PM
“:| You are completely wrong Luke. . Only a piecemeal cull would have that affect. . Setts will need to be completely shut down for at least 6 months afterwards to ensure that all the Mycobacterium bovis bacteria in the sett has been eliminated. . Get over the emotion attached to a cull and learn the science. . The farmers had had to with cattle slaughter.”
by Luke, Helston
Wednesday, September 08 2010, 1:51PM
“I think when Defra produced their report on the badger cull they were taking the easy way out. It's this report that's led to the green light for culls across the UK. The inevitable cull across the UK.
Sure, there is a definite problem, and badgers are playing their part in spreading the disease, but the farmers themselves are not blameless, and badgers are becoming the scapegoat to a degree.
Charles,
And you're wrong Charles Henry, TB cases are found at too wide a geographic range in Britain to say it was transported through the natural food chain or badger movement - only man moves produce and livestock to such lengths.
The cull has the potential to actually invigorate the problem rather than quell it too if the government doesn't ensure the cull is done responsibly. One of my fears is that during a recession, with so many farmers and landowners under so much pressure and a government stretched by financial cuts, that taking matters into your own hands and looking to make a quick buck will result in a free-for-all in certain areas from those with a less than biophilia outlook.
After all, we all know foxes are just as a contentious an issue, and much many of the farming community took a responsible attitude when complying with that piece of land management.”
by Charles Henry 1945-(diuturnity), Somersetshire
Tuesday, September 07 2010, 8:29AM
“:| "foot and mouth and swine flu have been mainly down to unscrupulous dealing and transportation of livestock by dodgy dealers."
That is a completely untrue statement Michael and does you no credit suggesting it. You are obviously referring to this story. . Please do not generalise with such a serious issue that affected thousands of good and honest farmers.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1587396.stm
The last foot and mouth outbreak came from the government laboratories at Pirbright.
http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/2007/09/07/106574/Foot-and-mouth-multiple-biosecurity-breaches-at-Pirbright.htm
.”
by michael, marazion
Monday, September 06 2010, 10:24PM
“foot and mouth and swine flu have been mainly down to unscrupulous dealing and transportation of livestock by dodgy dealers...any chance that these chaps could be a part of the tb problem?”
by Charles Henry 1945-(diuturnity), Somersetshire
Monday, September 06 2010, 6:43PM
“:| You wish Theo. .
How high is your dustbin?
August 1st.
http://bovinetb.blogspot.com/2010/08/how-high-is-your-dustbin.html
.”
by Urban Leprechaun, Lifton
Monday, September 06 2010, 6:20PM
“@CH
Bovine TB Blogspot highlighted this video ages ago Theo, and so have I many times since.
Yes, maybe. But no one follows your links”
by Charles Henry 1945-(diuturnity), Somersetshire
Monday, September 06 2010, 5:51PM
“:| Bovine TB Blogspot highlighted this video ages ago Theo, and so have I many times since.”
by Urban Leprechaun, Lifton
Monday, September 06 2010, 5:45PM
“Now go and watch this side-splitting badger video....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSGVpd3TCEg&feature=player_embedded
And remember, this link comes from the Leprechaun - not CH.”