Badger Bother
Today I thought I'd be very topical and discuss the badger cull currently being undertaken in parts of Southern England. The cull is an effort to reduce the effects and spread of Bovine TB on cattle. I'd like to make it clear from the start that as I stand at the moment I am completely FOR the cull (unless I manage to convince myself otherwise whilst writing this post).
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| The Great British Badger |
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| Brian May who has been leading the campaign against the cull |
I did a lot of research and spoke to a lot of people around university when compiling my presentation and this is when I decided I was for the cull. There are many reasons as to why I am for the cull, some are not even related to the bovine TB epidemic and I have drawn up 5 main points, let me explain them to you below.
1) The Cull is a carefully managed, science led study. You'd be wrong in thinking it is a load of farmers going around shooting wildly into badger sets. The people undertaking the cull have had months of training and it is all being overseen by a group of scientists and an independent panel. This is not the government allowing a free-for-all on shooting badgers as many people seem to think.
2) Peoples livelihoods are genuinely being destroyed by Bovine TB. When a farmers cattle is infected it costs on average £30,000 to deal with the infection, £10,000 of this falls to the farmer to pay out of his own pocket. A farmer could loose his prize bull to TB, this would also leave him to have to find a new bull which isn't a cheap prospect either. Even if the cull only reduces the infection rate by 1%, that could save a farmer a lot of money, stress and worry.
3) The TB outbreak has cost the taxpayer £500 million over the past 10 years and it is still rising, the next 10 years are expected to cost a further £1 Billion, if nothing is done to try and stop the disease.
4) Those against the cull often ask for tighter bio-security and cattle movement controls to prevent the cattle-to-cattle spread of the disease. The UK already has some of the tightest bio-security measures on their farms, this ensures that all British cattle is cared for and is 100% safe for consumption, however this comes at a cost and means that often British farmers are competed out of the market by international imports, where costs aren't so high. To add more security measures to British farms could remove British meat producers from the market entirely, in the long run damaging the economy.
5) The badger population in the UK is at an all time high, since their protection in the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981. Some see that their population density especially in areas of the south west where TB is rife, as being too high, many think that a cull is needed to control the number of badgers before their excessive populations damage the British countrysides fragile ecosystem. A cull could be needed within the next 50 years as a pest/population control anyway.
I appreciate that this is a very sensitive issue and I'd love to hear your opinions on the cull, for or against. I also think that the environment in which I choose to spend my time and the people I spend my time with influence me heavily on my decision, not intentionally. I however can see the pain and problems Bovine TB has caused first hand, the people and their livelihoods who have been effected, so maybe we are just using badgers as a scapegoat, even if there is only a tiny little glimmer that culling the badgers would have a positive effect, I say go for it.
MJT
Useful Links
The opinion of The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
The Badger Trust
London Against The Badger Cull
The BBCs Q&A on The Cull
Stay Connected
Twitter- @TylerMattyJames
Instagram- tylermattyjames
*This blog post was originally published on 27/08/2013, reformatted and then republished on 26/02/2016
1) The Cull is a carefully managed, science led study. You'd be wrong in thinking it is a load of farmers going around shooting wildly into badger sets. The people undertaking the cull have had months of training and it is all being overseen by a group of scientists and an independent panel. This is not the government allowing a free-for-all on shooting badgers as many people seem to think.
2) Peoples livelihoods are genuinely being destroyed by Bovine TB. When a farmers cattle is infected it costs on average £30,000 to deal with the infection, £10,000 of this falls to the farmer to pay out of his own pocket. A farmer could loose his prize bull to TB, this would also leave him to have to find a new bull which isn't a cheap prospect either. Even if the cull only reduces the infection rate by 1%, that could save a farmer a lot of money, stress and worry.
3) The TB outbreak has cost the taxpayer £500 million over the past 10 years and it is still rising, the next 10 years are expected to cost a further £1 Billion, if nothing is done to try and stop the disease.
4) Those against the cull often ask for tighter bio-security and cattle movement controls to prevent the cattle-to-cattle spread of the disease. The UK already has some of the tightest bio-security measures on their farms, this ensures that all British cattle is cared for and is 100% safe for consumption, however this comes at a cost and means that often British farmers are competed out of the market by international imports, where costs aren't so high. To add more security measures to British farms could remove British meat producers from the market entirely, in the long run damaging the economy.
5) The badger population in the UK is at an all time high, since their protection in the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981. Some see that their population density especially in areas of the south west where TB is rife, as being too high, many think that a cull is needed to control the number of badgers before their excessive populations damage the British countrysides fragile ecosystem. A cull could be needed within the next 50 years as a pest/population control anyway.
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| 26,000 cattle were slaughtered in 2011 as a result of TB |
I appreciate that this is a very sensitive issue and I'd love to hear your opinions on the cull, for or against. I also think that the environment in which I choose to spend my time and the people I spend my time with influence me heavily on my decision, not intentionally. I however can see the pain and problems Bovine TB has caused first hand, the people and their livelihoods who have been effected, so maybe we are just using badgers as a scapegoat, even if there is only a tiny little glimmer that culling the badgers would have a positive effect, I say go for it.
MJT
Useful Links
The opinion of The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
The Badger Trust
London Against The Badger Cull
The BBCs Q&A on The Cull
Stay Connected
Twitter- @TylerMattyJames
Instagram- tylermattyjames
*This blog post was originally published on 27/08/2013, reformatted and then republished on 26/02/2016
