BADGER TRUST CONDEMNS CONTINUED CULLING AS “COMPLETELY IRRATIONAL’
UK’s
leading naturalists and broadcasters Chris Packham and Steve Backshall
agree.
The Badger Trust has condemned the government’s decision to continue with the pilot badger culls in Gloucestershire and Somerset as ‘completely irrational’.
“These
culls were sold to the public as an experiment to see if free-shooting badgers
was humane and effective,” says the Badger Trust’s CEO, Dominic Dyer, “and on
both counts they have comprehensively failed.”
The
government's Independent Expert Panel (IEP) and now the British Veterinary
Association (BVA) have condemned free shooting as 'inhumane' . There was a
failure to achieve the minimum number of badgers killed in either annual cull in
Gloucestershire and in Somerset the second year of culling achieved a much
reduced target figure.
“However,
the real scandal is that the vast majority of culled badgers will not have had
Bovine Tuberculosis (bTB),” continues Dominic Dyer. “The government has insisted
that none of them are tested for the disease either before or after they are
killed. This means the culling method is not only ‘blind’ but also that there is
no way of ever knowing if it has worked.
“Defra’s
own data suggest that while 15% of badgers may test positive for bTB, just 1.6%
of them are capable of passing on the disease. This means 98.4% pose no risk
whatsoever to cattle and 85% are likely to be completely bTB free. Trying to
control bTB in cattle by culling badgers that don’t have bTB doesn’t make any
sense.”
Two
of the UK’s leading naturalists and broadcasters Chris Packham and Steve
Backshall have joined with the Badger Trust to condemn the government’s
decision. “Ignoring science and going back to the dark ages culling badgers to
keep certain lobbies happy, is a terrible idea,” says Steve Backshall, whilst
Chris Packham has said, “There are plenty of reasons to oppose the culling of
badgers but underpinning them all is the fact that the science says, indeed all
the scientists say, that it’s the wrong thing to do”.
“The
government and the farming lobby are continuing to play the badger blame game in
order to mask their failure to properly control this disease,” says Badger Trust
Chairman, Peter Martin, “the Welsh Government’s approach has been far more
successful by focusing on improved testing and movement controls in cattle. New
incidents of bTB in Wales are down 28% with a 45% cut in the number of cattle
being slaughtered. This leaves 94% of the Welsh herd now free of bTB, without
culling any badgers”.
The Badger Trust is urging the government to adopt the same approach in England and also to consider the economics of the cull. “Two years of badger culling have cost the tax payer in the region of £15 million,” continues Peter Martin, “it’s the most expensive wildlife cull of its kind on record. And to what effect? Culling badgers costs ten times more than vaccinating them”.
“To cap it all,” concludes Dominic Dyer, “Defra’s latest figures [1] show TB incidents in and around the cull zones are actually increasing. This was predicted not just by the scientists but was also highlighted as a serious concern in the government’s own risk assessments. Taking all these factors into consideration, their decision to carry on culling badgers is completely irrational”.
"DEFRA’s
December 2011 policy on badger culling confirmed that it will be necessary to
undertake a further cost/benefit analysis before rolling out culling beyond the
two pilot areas (paragraph 4.18):
‘Culling
in two pilot areas will enable us to test our and the farming industry’s cost
assumptions for elements of the policy where there is currently uncertainty.
Alongside the outcome of the evaluation of culling in the pilot areas (see
paragraph 6.1), this will also inform our decision on wider roll-out of the
policy.’
“As
far as we are aware, no such cost/benefit analysis has yet been undertaken, and
it is not clear how it could be undertaken until the conclusion of the pilot
culls.
“The
decision to extend the badger cull to Dorset in particular has no scientific
justification as the County has seen one of the largest declines in bTB rates in
England with a 37.25% drop between 2012 to 2014 without killing any badgers.”
