GOVERNMENT’S PLANNED BADGER CULL IS BEYOND BELIEF

THOSE who know me best also understand that one thing likely to wind me up is animal cruelty. I am all too aware there are a great many more pressing issues in our society, especially at a time when the Government’s austerity measures are hurting people and pushing families into poverty.

But I think there will always be an animal rights activist lurking within me, perhaps borne from the time I spent fiercely opposing animal cruelty during my late teens and early 20s.

I used to be an active member Hunt Saboteurs back then.  I feel the need to defend animals just as strongly now, which is why I have been a trustee of the League Against Cruel Sports since 1979.

That’s why I simply cannot comprehend why the Government has ignored an abundance of professional opinion in opting to press ahead with a badger cull.  It is quite literally beyond belief.  There is no justification for the Government’s decision whatsoever.

The theory is that by culling badgers they will control the spread of bovine tuberculosis.  The reality is entirely different, as has been pointed out by a wealth of expert scientific opinion.
It’s not even as if it should be a political issue.

Animal welfare is something that should unite all people.  But the Tories’ decision suggests that they have mistaken the badgers for one of the social groups they normally target – such as people who are on low pay or out of work.

One former Government chief scientist, Lord Robert May, is among those who have said the decision makes no sense while another, Professor Sir John Beddington, has refused to give the policy his backing either.

More than 30 scientists signed a letter to The Observer warning that the complexities of tuberculosis transmission meant the cull would be more likely to increase its spread rather than reduce it.

Among the signatories were a former chairman of the Independent Scientific Group, the president of the Zoological Society of London, a former chief executive of the Natural Environment Research Council, and representatives of the Food and Environment Research Agency and the Royal Veterinary College.

But, somehow, the Government hasn’t heeded the warnings.

I took the opportunity to highlight some of this in a House of Commons debate on the subject, brought after Labour proposed a motion calling for the cull to be halted.

I also explained how there has actually been a vaccination for bovine TB available since 2010.  Surely anyone with an ounce of common sense can see that vaccinating is preferable to culling?
But that’s not all we can do.  We should also be following the examples set in areas where cattle movements have been restricted and high standards of farming husbandry are observed.

Alongside a plan to vaccinate badgers, that is the sensible way to halt the spread of bovine TB, without the need for the merciless shooting of these beautiful wild animals.

Even DEFRA, the government department responsible for proposing the cull, has acknowledged that badgers will die slowly and painfully as a result of this course of action.

When the cull fails, which it inevitably will, there will be no wriggle room for the Government.  Ministers will not get away with saying they were following advice from professionals, or that they had no reason to doubt it would work.