Our Badgers are dying

Despite the best efforts of Network For Animals, Team Badger, and thousands of motivated people around the UK, the 2014 badger cull finally began last night, Monday 8th September.

Over the next six weeks, up to 1876 innocent badgers will be shot by government employed marksmen, either trapped in cages that could have been used to vaccinate them, or fired upon from up to 70 metres away while meekly foraging for food.

Parliament voted in April by 219 to 1 that the culls should not continue. Public opinion is firmly against culling. Majority independent scientific opinion suggests badger culling could make bovine TB worse. And hundreds of thousands of us have spoken out, time after time.

Yet here we are. Unheard. And our badgers are dying.

I listened this morning on the radio to Elizabeth Truss, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, uttering the same verbal diarrhoea that we used to suffer from Owen Patterson and no doubt spoon-fed to her by the NFU. The blind arrogance of these people is overwhelming.

In May 2015, the United Kingdom will elect its next government (with or without Scotland). The general election is now the vehicle for change that we must embrace. A pledge to end the badger cull will need to be written into any political manifesto that expects my support. 

I trust that you feel the same.

Defra's astonishing new TB figures

New figures just released by Defra show that bovine TB was declining in UK herds - just as Paterson claimed the disease was 'spreading' - and that Wales's no-cull, biosecurity and vaccination policy led to a 24% drop in herd infections.

Wales's biosecurity measures, combined with its small-scale badger vaccination programme, was astonishingly successful.

Read more here: http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2281811/defras_astonishing_new_tb_figures_an_end_to_the_cull.html 

Don't Cull, say Trusts

While the first badger culls have been carried out in Somerset and Gloucestershire, The Wildlife Trusts continue to vaccinate badgers on their nature reserves and, with farmers, on surrounding land.

The cull, claimed to be the best way to reduce TB in cattle (bTB), is opposed by wildlife organisations, scientists and the public. More than 300,000 people supported a government e-petition against culling. Although sympathetic with farmers, The Wildlife Trusts are firmly against the cull and will not allow culling on their land.

Two years ago Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust began to vaccinate badgers in high bTB risk areas to demonstrate its practicality. There are now 13 Trusts either vaccinating badgers or raising funds to do so. Some are vaccinating in the zone between high and low risk areas - the 'firewall' approach.

They will continue to press for greater emphasis on badger vaccination. But the long-term goal is the development of a cattle vaccine alongside other measures to reduce bTB such as improved farm biosecurity, restrictions on livestock movements and breeding genetic resistance in cattle.

For the latest news and to donate to vaccination projects visit
wildlifetrusts.org/badgers-and-bovineTB  

The Shameful Badger Cull

The groundswell of public opinion against the badger cull and its probable extension, gains momentum. Secretary of State for the Environment, Owen Paterson, wants to extend the cull because marksmen failed to kill the target proportion of badgers, falling well short of their target of killing 70% of badgers within the cull zones. Just recently we have learned that 708 badgers were killed in Gloucestershire out of an original target of 2,900 badgers. And, as we all know, according to Mr Paterson: "the badgers moved the goalposts". In making such a ludicrous statement DEFRA scored an embarrassing own goal. Had it not been for the emergency deployment of cages to trap and kill these poor animals when it became obvious that shooting wasn't working, then the kill figures would have been far lower. The failure of the pilot culls to reach their targets should not be used as an excuse to extend shooters' licences for three additional weeks.

There has been little if any monitoring of the shooting, whether or not badgers shot were killed cleanly. Any number of badgers could have been painfully wounded and fled underground to die. We will never know. Moreover, DEFRA did not include testing of badgers for bovine TB as part of the cull, even though testing of badger carcasses would have been easy enough to do and experts urged it.

And now Owen Paterson is considering gassing whole families of badgers in their setts as a possible future 'tool' for killing our remarkable animals. According to a new YouGov opinion poll 58% of the public would not support the government authorising badger gassing. Indeed, three years ago prime minister, David Cameron, famously called gassing "very cruel". Gassing is excluded as a method of killing species listed by the Convention on the conservation of European wildlife and natural habitats (Bern convention) which includes badgers.

Mr Paterson's conduct throughout this hapless episode has resulted in him becoming little more than a laughing stock, amazing when our Government seeks to play a leading role in matters concerning biodiversity protection and wildlife crime.

It's time the Government got serious about protecting our wildlife and our farm animals and left our badgers alone.

England's Wildlife Killing Fields...

This is the best article by a country mile that I have read on the badger cull and shows conclusively that Owen Paterson, UK Minister for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs should resign or be dismissed as totally incompetent. Having said that I have to stifle a yawn over David Cameron's cabinet reshuffle that bears no more weight than the flick of a feather duster.  So, without further ado, whether or not you have an opinion on the badger cull and whether or not it will help to reduce bovine Tb, I urge you to read this. A most compelling piece...

http://www.globalresearch.ca/englands-killing-fields-h-m-governments-badger-culls-kill-scientific-honesty/5352805

The Truth about Bovine Tb

The current badger cull in Somerset and Gloucestershire has divided the nation. On one side the powerful National Farmers Union (NFU), DEFRA, our Environment Minister, Owen Paterson, our Prime Minister, David Cameron and our elected dictatorship and on the other the like minded members of the National Trust, the Wildlife Trust,  the RSPB, the Badger Trust, Nature Conservation and such well informed people as Dr Brian May, Lord Krebs and Dominic Dyer.

And me.

For the TRUTH about Bovine Tb please watch this informed video of Dominic Dyer talking at the Badger March on 7th September in Taunton, Somerset. Listen to his compelling evidence that this cull is not only wrong, it is futile and ill-informed and is driven by the greed of the NFU that has completely distorted the facts surrounding the origin of this disease.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1mxVO4-U3EU

The badger cull is now likely to be rolled out to take in East and West Sussex. Mike Weatherley, the conservative MP for Hove and Portslade, has signed a Parliamentary Motion to call on the government to allow a vote in the Commons to decide on the further badger cull. Mike said: "This badger cull is entirely unnecessary......" We, the people, agree. It is time for the stench of the NFU and its supporters to be shown for what it is. A package of lies to hide the fact that Bovine Tb originated in cattle and not badgers. And yet these people want to virtually wipe out an animal that is supposed to be protected in this country of ours.

Join your local Badger Protection Group and take a stand for our wildlife. Owen Paterson cares nothing for badgers. Indeed, he wants farmers to be given the right to shoot any badger on sight. What a contemptible man he is - and he is our Environment Minister. He should be ashamed for ignoring popular opinion, but then isn't that typical of this coalition government in general?

Write to your MPs and urge them to sign Early Day Motion (EDM) 299 Pilot Badger Cull Parliamentary Assessment and Vote. Make your own MP accountable for the views of his/her constituents and not the demands of the government whips.

United, we can put a stop to this massacre of our wildlife.

Badger Cull To Start

The Guardian has learned that England's badger culls are due to begin on the night of Monday 26th August. The cull will take place in Gloucestershire and Somerset. The animal welfare group 'Care For the Wild', using figures released by Defra under the Freedom of Information Act, has accused them of not properly assessing the suffering of badgers as the figures reveal that as few as 120 out of the 5,000 shootings will be independently observed. The Information Commissioner instructed Defra to reveal this information.

The expected cull has split national opinion. Although the badger is a protected species ministers and farmers insist that a cull is necessary to stop spiralling rates of bTB in livestock. Opponents say it will have little effect on infection and will cause suffering to badgers.

Many of you will recall that Lord Krebs, one of the Government's key advisers on the issue and a world expert in zoology, has previously described the policy as a mistake. He said research showed that killing 70% of badgers in a restricted area only reduced bovine TB by 16%.

Philip Mansbridge, Care For the Wild chief executive, said: "The truth is this cull has no scientific or moral basis. Going ahead with it will give false hope to farmers, is pointless for cattle and utterly disastrous for badgers".

The NFU is making an injunction bid today in the High Court to restrict the activity of badger cull opponents. They claim that some farmers have been intimidated and harassed and therefore need protection. Opponents will challenge the legal bid claiming it will prevent their right to peaceful protest.

An e-petition to HM Government, created by Dr Brian May CBE, entitled "Stop the Badger Cull" has been signed by 264,965 individuals. No matter which side of the debate you support this is a compelling number of people who want to see the cull stopped.

The nation will, I am sure, remain divided on this one.