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Badger cull expanded
#1
This is very sad. They have decided to expand the badger cull into new areas. As many as 42,000 more badgers will die.
There is no actual proof that culling badgers is helping curb the spread of TB. Scientists are not in favour of the cull. Farmers and politicians are.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/...42000-shot

I presume politicians are in favour of the cull because farmers vote and badgers don't. It is so cruel to hunt and kill an animal for no real reason. It would make more sense to vaccinate cattle and badgers. It would also help if farms were more careful about transporting cows and keeping records.  Badgers do not move from one area to another. They stay in their own territory, so we know they cannot be the ones causing TB to spread.  None of this would matter if they invested in a vaccination program to prevent spread of the disease.
Until then, badgers die needlessly. Smiley19
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Catherine

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#2
(09-18-2018, 03:21 PM)Catherine Wrote: Scientists are not in favour of the cull. Farmers and politicians are......I presume politicians are in favour of the cull because farmers vote and badgers don't.

Absolutely right. It is the farmers and politicians who support the culls each year. The farming lobby is very strong. But the scientific evidence that badgers are the cause is almost non-existent. We have discussed this on previous threads. Scotland has plenty of badgers and remains TB free.
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#3
This whole idea never makes any sense to me, and is horrible.
You are right Catherine -Badgers don't travel far. They stay in a strict location (their territory)
Whereas, cattle are moved -by humans- all over the place.

And why was milk always advertised as "Tuberculin tested" way back in time....in the 1950s. I remember that. Well before all this Badger cull business started? Because (it seems to me) TB was always a possibility among cattle...caused by what?  Well probably not Badgers or there would have been an uproar and Badger culls back then....but there weren't.
And that's not just because people were stupider then. It's most likely because there was no link.

Farmers hate Badgers also because of the large holes they dig. Cows can stumble in them and tractors too. But it's just a question of getting along and finding a way to live side by side with the wildlife. (such as wiring -off Badger setts so that cows can't walk there??)
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#4
This isn't so much an attempt to prevent the spread of TB as it  is an attempt to appear to be doing something about the spread of TB. The method isn't working, but at least it looks like they are doing something. They can point to a pile of dead badgers when they are asked  what progress they are making.

I suspect there are other motives for wanting to kill badgers. As you say, farmers don't like them.
The badgers are an easy unpopular scape goat that takes people's minds off the real problem. 

If TD is spreading then there must be some herd mismanagement. At one point TB was becoming a thing of the past. How is it making a comeback. They lined us up in school and tested all of us. Now parents are making choices to not use the vaccines that are available. 

If we would go back to testing of cattle and even school kids and also vaccinating badgers and cows we would get the problem under control.  As you pointed out LPC, Scotland has plenty of badgers and is TB free. They must be doing something right.
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Catherine

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