Tuesday 14th June 2011
Agriculture Minister James Paice has announced further delays to the proposed killing of badgers in England as part of the Coalition Government’s scheme to eradicate bovine TB. Meurig Raymond, Deputy President of the National Farmers’ Union said he was deeply frustrated.
David Williams, chairman of the Badger Trust, said: “The Coalition Government tried to legislate in haste, but is evidently repenting at leisure. Worse, it has misled farmers into thinking that killing badgers would have more effect than has been shown to be possible. Whether all this is a political disaster is not for me to say, but it is certainly a scientific travesty”.
Mr Paice and Mr Raymond were speaking to farmers at the Royal Cornwall Show on June 9, and the Badger Trust says they repeated exaggerated and mistaken fables about the science, and clearly underestimated the weight of public opinion [1].
Exaggeration
“We have lost another year in trying to combat this dreadful disease,” (Mr Raymond).
The Trust says:
It is being successfully combatted without killing badgers.The industry has been bringing down the level of infection by 15 percent over the last two full years [2]. Unfortunately, deliberate and direct contravention of bTB rules by farmers, notably the infamous ear-tag changing may well have put at risk these welcome reductions achieved by:
- Testing cattle before movement
- Eliminating test backlogs
- Improving market and abattoir procedures
- Tracking all cattle through passports
Misunderstanding the science
“This disease needs to be tacked now before it does any more damage,” (Anthony Rew, dairy farmer).
The Trust says:
- Cattle measures are sufficient alone to control the disease [2]
- The implication that killing badgers would “tackle” the disease is deeply mistaken
- More “damage” would result from killing and scattering badger social groups
- Badger Killing has been shown to have no meaningful effect [2]
Public opinion
“A majority of Britons in both town and country oppose killing badgers . . .” (BBC poll published on June 8) [1]
The Trust says:
- Up to 68 percent opposed
- Majorities in every age group, both genders and every region
“Environmentalist” lobby
Legal challenges from within the “environmentalist lobby” were “bound to be made” (Mr Paice)
The Trust says:
- Correct. The Badger Trust has already begun proceedings against culling in Wales.
- The Trust is not only ‘environmentalist’ but science-based, and the only organisation solely dedicated to the welfare of badgers
NOTES
[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13684482
[2] http://archive.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/farmanimal/diseases/atoz/tb/stats/detailedstats.htm
[3] Randomised Badger Culling Trial – Final Report of the Independent Scientific Group. Defra 2007.