Cult of the badger: why should they be sacrosanct?
That delightful and highly astute MP Sarah Wollaston dubbed badgers "celebrity animals" when she came to talk to farmers after Parliament had voted not to cull.
Nothing must be done to hurt badgers, not matter how much harm they do. We cull both deer and foxes to control numbers. Pheasants and snipe and woodcock are shot for fun.
But badgers must be allowed to cause mayhem throughout the countryside.
Nothing predates badgers. In fact they are the top predator. They are busy multiplying uncontrolled. They are a nuisance in crops, eating strawberries and maize in gardens and fields. They dig pits so deep in fields that lambs fall in, and a new-born calf was nearly lost in one.
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They are murder in Devon hedge banks and are a nuisance in many physical ways.
But no one has studied just how much damage badgers are doing to other wildlife. They are known as the only creature that can kill and eat hedgehogs. These have disappeared from badger country, surviving only in gardens.
Young hares and all ground-nesting birds are getting rarer – but don't blame badgers. It is no longer denied that badgers can and do transmit TB to cattle. TB has become endemic in the Westcountry, in both cattle and badgers. When cattle get it they are killed, not matter how precious to their owners, or to their young calves if they are suckler cows. But the badgers remain on the farm to keep the infection alive.
The situation now is desperate. TB is costing vast amounts of public and private money and is spreading inexorably. All the TB that badgers are harbouring in the countryside will never spontaneously disappear. It will continue to multiply.
All mammals are at risk of infection, including man. Every country that has been troubled with TB has had to clear it from whatever wildlife was carrying it, and this has been successful.
The quality of debate in Parliament when the subject was considered was unfortunate. As former Farm Minister Jim Paice said, many were "misinformed" – and that was putting it politely. The people who have been encouraging the pro-badger emotion have a lot to answer for. Why are they doing it? What are they gaining? Continued misery for farmers, cattle . . . and sick badgers.
The Government's parliamentary select committee is going to study vaccination for both badgers and cows. Perhaps they will decide that it could be useful. Who knows what the scientists may think?
But vaccination does not cure disease, it just reduces the incidence. Shall we be told how effective the human BCG vaccine is with badgers and cattle? For now there is no light at the end of the tunnel for farmers and their cattle. There will not be until an effective method of discovering which badger setts are infected is brought into use.
When these sets, and these only, can be removed legally, the problem can be solved.
The tragedy is that there are cases where this action has been taken with great effect. But it remains illegal and so is only carried out by the boldest – and the most desperate. If it were made legal, we could have healthy cattle and healthy badgers. Farmers' health would be improved too, if this dreadful scourge could be removed. But who cares for farmers, or cows and calves?
Badgers are sacred.
Comments
by E_Badger
Wednesday, December 19 2012, 5:58PM
“What wonderfully comedic script writing, worthy of panto season. Can't wait until this hits the theatre circuit, then I can throw rotten fruit (or should that be strawberries) at it.”
by AtrixMan
Wednesday, December 12 2012, 9:58PM
“MP Sarah Wollaston, needs to talk to the Badger Welfare Association. What she is asking for is exactly what they are promoting. While we all want the to stop the spread of bovine TB, we need to target sick and not healthy badgers.”
by vulcan
Wednesday, December 12 2012, 5:25PM
“'Delightful and astute'. No sickly sweet fawning there from a lickspittle journalist”
by fischadler
Wednesday, December 12 2012, 5:03PM
“As a Wildlife Trust member I am proud to announce that there is great commitment today from wildlifetrusts to continue and extend their badger bTB vaccine programme in England.
At least some people in the country are trying to keep up with the lead that has been shown by Wales.”
by fischadler
Wednesday, December 12 2012, 5:00PM
“Badgers are not a threat to ground nesting birds. The RSPB does not support a badger cull. Farmers are a threat to ground nesting birds and much of the remaining wildlife in this country.”
by conundrum
Wednesday, December 12 2012, 4:29PM
“And of course, that would be the same Dr. Wollaston that so 'delightfully' and 'astutely' voted in favour of the NHS bill, raising tuition fees, privatising the Post Office, renewing Trident, etc., etc.,”
by conundrum
Wednesday, December 12 2012, 4:25PM
“Another day another let's kill badgers article.
Recently I commented that there's obviously an ongoing competition in the WMN to see how many of these could be published before Christmas, it was a joke of course.....but since then these articles just keep coming thick and fast, so as they say: "Many a true word...."
Now I know the WMN is an offshoot of that bastion of ill-informed bigotry the Daily Mail, and their record of endorsing any and every Tory policy, no matter how idiotic, is well established, but seriously, this is pure farce.”
by fischadler
Wednesday, December 12 2012, 2:42PM
“I fail to see why those 2 comments I made contradict each other. They both come down to the same facts that a badger cull will not cure Bovine TB and will probably make the situation even worse.
The sabs and activists have 6 months to prepare for an almighty battle against the cull with the general public on their side. Continue with this policy and farmers will lose out one way or the other.”
by 2ladybugs
Wednesday, December 12 2012, 2:26PM
“OMG Alan's decided to makes two comments which contradict one another....well done. No wonder Baroness Jan Royall of Blaisdon in the Forest of Dean asked about a more intensive cull, not about a larger area for culling. Does she expect or want a more full on cull?? Is she worrying about DISEASED badgers escaping?”
by fischadler
Wednesday, December 12 2012, 1:52PM
“Vets against the badger cull:
"We are all veterinary surgeons - either clinicians or scientists - and are dismayed that there is a very real prospect that this government will pursue a cull of badgers.
The report of DEFRA's own Independent Scientific Group1 which was set up to look at the issue, states in the conclusions of its £50 million research project: "careful evaluation of our own and others' data indicates that badger culling can make no meaningful contribution to cattle TB control in Britain."
Despite this weighty opinion to the contrary, the Coalition has chosen to cherry pick data that supports the need to cull badgers - a policy which in our opinion is flawed on many levels.
The cull would cause untold suffering to the unfortunate badgers targeted in this massacre, and would result in additional suffering due to resultant ecosystem imbalances. Bovine TB reduction is likely to be very small at best, and in some areas may actually increase1. Attempting to remove the major carnivore from a local ecosystem by shooting, not only encourages badger movements into neighbouring areas and then back again1, it would also disturb the population numbers and increase movement of other species such as foxes, deer, rats, voles, mice and birds, which potentially also carry TB thus furthering its spread.
We do have to question as to whether a thorough Disease Risk Analysis has been properly carried out on shooting large numbers of potentially TB infected animals in the same vicinity. Far from removing the threat of TB, it is entirely possible that the contamination of the land with TB bacteria will simply further its spread into other wildlife, and ultimately, dairy cows."”