I’m off to the Badger Trust Conference later today for tomorrow’s talks. I know very little about Badgers but it’s difficult not to get involved in what appears to be the start of wildlife-cleansing of a native species from large areas of the country.
Wild Justice is looking at the Badger cull and we’ve had some useful meetings, with our lawyers, with people who are much more informed about the issue than any of us (Chris, Ruth and I) would claim to be and tomorrow’s conference will be an opportunity to learn a bit more. It’s all quite confusing, complicated and political (but that’s life!).
My current personal position is as follows: I believe that Badgers are part of the problem of Bovine Tuberculosis but a rather small part. And I would be prepared to see Badger culling if I believed it was a humane, cost-effective and really significant way of reducing Bovine TB. However, the current government (we still have a government even though we have no MPs) position seems wrong-headed and driven by pandering to the unscientific hectoring of the NFU rather than the science. But I know I have a lot to learn on this subject, and I’m keen to learn.
Just a couple of points here:
- Party election manifestos: do you ever read the election manifestos of the political parties? It’s easy now they are online, I remember going and buying them in Westminster bookshops! In 2010, the Conservative Party, in Invitation to Join the Government of Britain, wrote ‘The most pressing animal health problem in the UK today is bovine tuberculosis (bTB), which has led to the slaughter of over 250,000 cattle since 1997. As part of a package of measures, we will introduce a carefully-managed and science-led policy of badger control in areas with high and persistent levels of bTB.‘. It was clear that the Tories were in favour of a Badger cull so it should have come as no surprise to anyone that they reversed the position of the previous Labour government immediately and set us on the track we are still on. Is the cull carefully-managed and science-led? I think it falls a long way short on both counts but that comes as no surprise. The message is – read the election manifestos and ask questions of candidates.
- The Godfray report: next week will mark the first anniversary of the publication of the important Godfray report on the government’s bovine TB policy. This was commissioned by Michael Gove (whatever happened to him?) in February 2018, published on 13 November 2018 and has not received a government response yet, and now cannot do so until after (probably well after) the general election. The Godfray report is a solid and important piece of work, and whether you agree with it or not, it should be influencing and already have influenced government policy on culls and eradication of bovine TB. Not to have responded for over a year is not a carefully-managed or science-led approach to this subject and this government, and DEFRA in particular, deserves to be punished in the media and in the voting cubicles for its disregard for science on this matter.
See my review of Dominic Dyer’s book, Badgered to Death, and read again Rosie Woodroffe’s Guest Blog here from April 2017, Badger culling: time to work together?.
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“Unscientific hectoring by the NFU”
Hits the nail on the head
Constant pandering to farmers and NFU is and has had a disastrous effect on wildlife
My view is that the Badger cull has done immense damage – and not just to Badgers. It’s been clear all along that the cull is diversionary tactics to head off a real assessment of the causes which would almost certainly mean farmers having to do things they don’t want to – and cures – for bovine Tb and as such has almost certainly delayed tackling the problem properly by over a decade. To approach an issue like this properly you need to try and identify as many possible factors as you can and then work your way through them and use the ranking to try and tackle the issue. Yes, Badgers are there – but just how far down the rankings do they come ?
Probably below having a test that finds all the carriers in a herd of cattle, not just the reactors and below having proper farm biosecurity in and around cattle sheds and fields in which infected cattle have grazed.
Badgers are to cattle farming, what Hen Harriers are to DGS and it seems what rewilding is to uneconomic sheep farming.
The NFU have pushed for this and past culls they are a powerful lobby group and the Tories will always side with them. There must be large economic reasons for blaming badgers and insisting on culling. Can anyone throw light on these economic reasons
Labour I hope will stand up to NFU and Defra scientists
Actually the DEFRA scientists were opposed to the cull but were over-ruled by ministers keen to placate their supporters in the NFU.
Above hedgehogs, obviously
The hedgehogs will be next
Then deer
Then gulls
Ironic that the recent Autumnwatch were extolling the virtues of Brock and cooing over the trail camera live images. I hope they are safe there in the Cairngorms unlike their southern cousins that are being battered to kingdom come. What happens to their corpses? Landfill/incineration/trophy mounts?
The badger cull is doing no-one any favours, other than those who enjoy unscientific and inhumane blood lust as well as those who refuse to implement robust biosecurity measures etc.
It’s certainly an extremely expensive sop …. “Fine John, we accept your science, but we have to offer the farmers a carrot. And the only carrot we can possibly give them is culling badgers.” Prof John Bourne, Chair Independent Scientific Group. 2007.
People are turning to plant alternatives to dairy because of the cruelty involved and seemingly something promoted by the likes of the NFU who need to realise whilst they may have friends in high places the public are beginning to realise the spin is not the reality. Farmers need friends and public support and this insistence that the b in bTB is badger not bovine really does show how unscientific the agri-industry is.