Badger Culling In The UK
- by: Michael Enright
- recipient: The Prime Minister of Her Majesty's Government of the United Kingdom
A cull of this remarkable indigenous animal, which may or may not be the cause of tuberculosis in cattle herds in the UK... is currently underway, but in a very cruel and callous way, that is extremely inhumane.
We konw that the UK government has been advised against continuing with this particular course of action by the very people it employed to give advice,and yet it has doggedly persisted with this Draconian measure in an attempt to appease the NFU ( National Farmers Union ).
This was something that was brought to the attention of Commitee members at a meeting looking into the issue of bovine TB and how badgers fitted into the equation ~
"But that leaves four fifths of the problem, caused, not by badgers but by in effective TB testing, poor
cattle management, inadequate disease prevention measures on farms, and massive movements of cattle
from farm to farm unresolved , a fact that Defra, the department responsible for animal disease control, remains remarkably loathe to highlight.
Government ministers like Secretary of State Owen Paterson constantly claim all that can be done has been done to control this highly infectious respiratory disease. But critics, among them virtually all of the country’s top independent
animal disease experts, disagree.
The Government lamely claims it has science on its side. Plainly it hasn’t. A 10 year peer reviewed science led research project, the Randomised Badger Culling Trials (RBCT) conducted by the Independent Scientific Group (ISG) concluded that
badger slaughter would make no meaningful contribution to b TB control and that robust cattle based measures provided the way forward.
Badger Trust agrees.
We share the widely held view that the key conclusions of the report have been distorted and cherry picked in a vain attempt to justify a mass cull of badgers which the farming unions have consistently advocated. Badger Trust remains totally opposed to this futile slaughter which could increase bTB, choas."
There are a number of other, less violent, ways this problem could be dealt with, surely it is the duty of all involved to pursue these first... rather than rush into the wholesale slaughter of these beautiful creatures?
10 Dowming Street,
London
SWA 2AA
Dear Sir,
the recent commencemnet of the culling of badgers has caused a great deal of concern worldwide.
Not only is it based on a very loose science which does those who have seen fit to carry it out discredit, but even allowing for a competent level of marksmanship it will result in a great deal of suffering and the painful deaths of the animals who are subjected to it.
It is my belief that this policy needs reviewing, and should be stopped until better, alternative, ways of tackling the problem of bovine TB can be found.
Yours sincerely,
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