Rosie Woodroffe is an ecologist and former member of the Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB, which advised government on TB control for 10 years. She is a Senior Research Fellow at the Zoological Society of London and a Visiting Professor at Imperial College London. She is on Twitter at @rosiewoodroffe. Badger culling: time to…
Tag: badger
Badgers and grouse shooting
Just for interest, here are the MPs who spoke in Monday’s badger debate, annotated with the number of their constituents who signed the anti-badger-cull petition and those who signed the ban-grouse shooting petition: Paul Flynn, Newport West 119 badgers, 113 grouse shooting Stephen Doughty, Cardiff South & Penarth 141 badgers, 185 grouse Richard Drax,…
Badger debate
I listened to all of Monday’s badger cull debate. It was a far better discussion than the previous one on badgers and infinitely better than the one on banning driven grouse shooting. Better though it was, it is interesting to see and listen to politicians debating science as those involved in the debate could not…
Badger cull e-petition to pass 100,000 signatures today?
I’m delighted that it looks as if the e-petition to end the Badger cull will pass 100,000 signatures this weekend and probably today. Hooray! There are three weeks to go, but at current rate of signing it will be very soon. Well done to Simon King and the Wildlife Trusts (or at least some of…
A month for badgers
The Wildlife Trust/Simon King e-petition to stop the Badger cull rather than expand it into new areas has a month to run and is around 18,000 signatures away from the magic 100,000. Now, as we know, 100,000 signatures does not mean that government will do anything – but, as we also know, it does mean…
Badger cull debate
To get a flavour of the type of debate that our e-petition on banning driven grouse shooting might receive, have a look at the transcript of the Westminster Hall debate on badger culling. I sat in the debate last week, on Wednesday afternoon, as a member of the public. This debate on badger culling had…
Sunday book review – Badgered to Death by Dominic Dyer
I enjoyed reading this book and I strongly recommend it to you. This is a powerful and stimulating read and it’s bang up to date with the important issue it discusses. It is written by a passionate insider with years of experience. The narrative is pacey and exciting. This book arrived with me on Thursday…
Lord Krebs on Badgers
My old boss, Prof Lord Krebs, was on Farming Today (8 mins in) being interviewed by Anna Hill on Wednesday morning. Lord Krebs provided a masterclass in sticking to the facts, despite some niggling questions from Ms Hill, and getting the message across very clearly. The message was that the ‘too-early-to-tell-really-but-the-figures-are-out-there’ results from the Badger…
Badger consultation
The government is consulting on relaxing the criteria that need to be met for farmers to get licenses to kill badgers in trial areas. This government is dead keen to give the NFU and farmers greater ‘flexibility’ in killing badgers with the supposed aim of reducing bTB. We need to reduce bTB. We may need…
Vaccination of badgers
The good thing about this strange statement from the NFU is that they are wanting more vaccination of badgers. One of the strange things is that they seem to think that it is the job of wildlife charities to provide it rather than their own industry or government. This represents, it appears, quite a lurch…