[Ammi]

A pilot badger cull in parts of Gloucestershire and Somerset is under way, the NFU has confirmed.

The controlled shooting of 5,000 badgers is due to take place over a six-week period in an attempt to control Bovine TB in cattle.

Supporters say the cull is necessary to tackle TB, which can be spread from infected badgers, but opponents say it is inhumane and ineffective.

The environment secretary said the pilot culls were "so important".

In a letter to members, National Farmers' Union President Peter Kendall said: "I am writing to let you know that the first pilot badger control operations have begun.

"This is an important step not just for cattle farmers but for the whole farming industry.

"I know that many of you reading this will have suffered the misery of dealing with TB on farm - some of you for decades - and I hope now you will feel that something is finally being done to stem the cycle of infection between cattle and badgers.

"I hope that when time shows that these culls have reduced TB in cattle - just as has happened in Ireland - that even more people will understand that while sad, these culls are absolutely necessary."

Following the NFU announcement, Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said: "Bovine TB is an infectious disease that is spreading across the country and devastating our cattle and dairy industries.

"We know that despite the strict controls we already have in place, we won't get on top of this terrible disease until we start dealing with the infection in badgers as well as in cattle. That's the clear lesson from Australia, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland and the USA.

"That is why these pilot culls are so important. We have to use every tool in the box because TB is so difficult to eradicate and it is spreading rapidly.

"If we had a workable vaccine we would use it."

Police officers were earlier sent to parts of Gloucestershire to "provide reassurance" after speculation the cull was imminent.

The cull will involve the animals being shot in the open by marksmen using high-velocity rifles. The badgers will not be trapped in cages first

[Marc]

[Z]

I've never seen a badger in real life before, only ever in pictures

[Kizzy]

It's a shame there's no other way.

[Livia]

Chris Packham described those responsible for the cull as "brutalist, thugs, liars and frauds" - and I'm with him. There IS a vaccine available it's just not been passed by the EU, and it would cost farmers more than a shotgun cartridge... that's the real motivation for farmers in this country - money. They say "trained marksmen" will be culling the badgers, but it will mostly be the farmers themselves who will blast away with shotguns. These are people who dress up in special clothes to shoot things for fun, so it's not going to be a hardship for them to be licenced to shoot the wildlife.

I intend to boycott British farmed goods until they stop this mindless slaughter, I've emailed my MP to tell him.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/env...s-Packham.html

[MTVN]

It's sad that is has to happen but it's more sad that hundreds of thousands of cows have fallen victim to TB and farmers see their livelihoods and income under constant threat, a mass vaccination is really too impractical to implement and there's no real guarantee it would be that effective anyway

I don't think badgers should really be counted as a 'protected species' anyway, that's what's allowed their numbers to multiply ridiculously and the disease to spread amongst them so rapidly

[Livia]

Why would it be less practical to vaccinate cows, in a field, each one lined up and numbered... than it would be to drag wild animals out of their set in the middle of the night and shoot them. And how many will die with the first shot? Not many. Plenty will be just wounded, they aren't going to be caged first... it's a disgrace.

The reason TB has spread so fast is the movement of cattle around the country. We move cattle further and more often than any other country in Europe.

The thing that farmers always forget is that the public of this country are their customers. They're not interested in actually being the Guardians of the Countryside they profess to be, All their interested in is the bottom line, and that's all.

[MTVN]

The only possible vaccination I've heard about is one that could be given to badgers, I thought there was no vaccine for cows atm that is legal or effective

[Marc]

Gloucestershire is starting it, better go out and stop them Matt

[MTVN]

Just loading up my shotgun now actually

[Ammi]

The controversial badger cull in England has failed to kill even half the minimum number of animals needed to ensure tuberculosis in cattle is curbed, sources have told the Guardian. Scientists say the failure may well result in more rather than fewer bovine TB infections, while cull opponents are calling for an immediate end to the "botched" policy.

The first six-week cull began in Somerset on 26 August and is due to end on Tuesday. But Paul Caruana, field manager for the government's decade-long culling trial that ended in 2006, said it had failed to reach the target of 2,100. "They have killed 750-800 badgers [in Somerset] as of Friday evening, and things were slowing down," he told the Guardian. Caruana no longer works for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) but helped the National Farmers Union find workers for the latter stages of the Somerset cull.

"Three weeks ago they hit the panic button and contacted people to try to get the show back on the road," said Caruana, who supports targeted culling. After being contacted, he helped the NFU find staff to deploy cages in Somerset to trap badgers and therefore make them easier to shoot. He said cage-trapping had a "big impact" on the numbers killed and the total would have been even lower without it: "It would have been a total disaster."

An unofficial source within Defra close to the cull confirmed that the night-time shoots have killed fewer than half the target of 2,100 badgers. The official report on the outcome of the culls, which will be scrutinised by an independent panel, is not expected for many weeks.

The culls in Somerset and Gloucestershire (the latter ends next week) were intended to demonstrate that shooting free-running badgers at night could kill sufficient numbers and do so humanely. The previous decade-long randomised badger culling trial (RBCT) used only cage-trapping and shooting, but this is a far more labour-intensive and expensive technique and was rejected as the sole method by ministers in the new culls.

Killing a high number of badgers – over 70% – is crucial because the RBCT showed that low kill rates can drive up TB infections in cattle as fleeing badgers spread the disease more widely, a phenomenon called perturbation.

Professor Rosie Woodroffe, a badger expert at the Zoological Society of London and a key member of the RBCT team, told the Guardian: "If the [Somerset] badger population estimates are correct, then culling 800 badgers would be in the region where I would expect cattle TB incidence to be elevated rather than reduced by culling." Earlier work by Woodroffe showed large uncertainties in the estimates of the initial badger populations, on which the minimum cull target was based.

Wildlife disease expert Chris Cheeseman, also a member of the RBCT, said: "If the 750-800 numbers are correct, then I would expect the perturbation effect to be marked. It would be utterly stupid to roll this cull out as a policy. I would expect environment secretary Owen Paterson to try some other means of culling, but that will take time to develop. What a farce." An unofficial Defra source said Paterson had been repeatedly warned of the risk of failure by officials: "It is hard to feel sorry for him, as this is a spectacular own goal."

A spokesman for Defra said the department would not comment on operational matters related to the cull. "All information will be made public after the end of the pilot badger culls," he said. The National Farmers Union, which represents those conducting the cull, declined to comment.

Farming minister David Heath was sacked in Monday's reshuffle.

The outgoing shadow environment secretary, Mary Creagh, said: "Scientists have warned that a botched cull is worse than no cull at all. We are now facing the worst case scenario: badgers have been killed, TB in cattle may well get worse and we are no closer to tackling this terrible disease. Ministers have to lift the veil of secrecy and come clean on what is actually happening."

Dozens of scientific experts warned in 2012 that the badger culls are a "costly distraction", and cull opponents argue that vaccination of cattle and badgers along with stricter controls on cattle movements are a better strategy for controlling bovine TB. The disease, which is on the rise, led to 28,000 cattle being slaughtered in 2012 at a cost of Ł100m to taxpayers. Ministers argue a cull is a necessary part of an eradication strategy that encompasses all approaches.

The badger culls have prompted the biggest animal rights campaign since the ban on fox hunting with dogs. "This news confirms that free shooting of badgers simply cannot be used as a method of controlling bovine TB," said David Bowles, the RSPCA's head of external affairs. "However, the government should ensure that they don't use this as an excuse to employ other inhumane methods such as gassing."

Jeff Hayden, of the Badger Trust, said: "Apart from the financial cost, it has also divided communities, and in some cases, families. Almost certainly there will be perturbation and some farmers, who otherwise would have been safe, will be suffering herd breakdowns."

Wendy Higgins, at the Humane Society, said: "It's clear now that every aspect of this badger cull catastrophe has unravelled. As the guns fall silent in Somerset we urge Defra to call off the cull."



http://www.theguardian.com/environme...cull-bovine-tb

[user104658]

Originally Posted by Livia

The thing that farmers always forget is that the public of this country are their customers. They're not interested in actually being the Guardians of the Countryside they profess to be, All their interested in is the bottom line, and that's all.

Farmers being the guardians of the countryside is a ridiculous claim in the first place: agriculture and the farming of animals wrecks any real nature and always has. Have a look at unfarmed parts of the Lake District or the Scottish Highlands, then at the "countryside" occupied by farming. It just doesn't compare really. Though I'm sure it all looks very green and "rural" to city-dwellers, especially Londoners, some of whom barely leave the city at all throughout their entire lives, save for a jaunt to Heathrow to leave the country completely every summer.

[MTVN]

[Kazanne]

Cruel and unnecessary ,typical of human reaction.

[arista]

This is a mess