Stop badger badgering
IN a month of nothing but bad news, there was a bright spot when the Government announced it will be phasing out its badger cull.
This was a slaughter of one of our most amazing creatures to attempt to tackle the spread of Bovine TB in cattle.
The Government will now replace the cull of thousands of badgers with a vaccine for cattle and for some badgers.
Since 2013, the Wildlife Trusts and other conservation organisations have been telling them that this cull was not proven by science and was a knee-jerk reaction to this devastating disease.
It has meant the death of tens of thousands of badgers, while cattle movements from one area to another has spread the disease, according to overwhelming evidence.
While I understand farmers’ despair at the loss of livelihoods as they had to kill thousands of cattle, it has been obvious from the offset that killing badgers was not the answer.
In fact, there is a lot of evidence that many badgers caught the bTB from cattle.
Badgers were the scapegoats, while other wild animals were not targeted.
In my opinion, this was a cruel assault on a shy and beautiful creature.
It deserves our protection, not to have a target unnecessarily painted on its back.
I am amazed that a mammal, which can grow to the size of an Alsatian dog, without the long legs, is roaming the woodlands of our heavily populated countryside.
An iconic UK species, its black-and-white coat is no camouflage, but how many of us has seen a badger in the wild.
Some people are lucky enough to have badgers visiting their gardens, digging up flower beds searching for worms.
If you have badgers visiting your garden, you will be able to help them out with food like plain peanuts.
Most badgers will live in woodland in setts, which are burrow systems underground.
They live in large family groups and really do tend to keep themselves to themselves, only bothered by cruel baiters and cullers.
An occupied sett can be recognised by the tidy burrow entrances, marked with piles of used hay and leaf bedding and by nearby latrine pits where the occupants leave their droppings. Cubs are born in January or February, but spend the first two or three months underground, only emerging in the spring, so now is a good time to look out for badgers.
The badger is large and grey, with a short, fluffy tail, black belly and paws and a black-and-white striped face.
It feeds on small mammals, ground-nesting birds’ eggs, earthworms, fruit, roots and bulbs, using its strong front paws to dig for food.
Badgers can eat several hundred earthworms a night.
They are also one of the only predators of hedgehogs.
We were once invited to a badger hide, close to a sett in Lancashire.
We were treated to about 15 minutes of badger activity, watching young and old animals getting on with their lives undisturbed by humanity.
What a shame that humanity got it so wrong with the badger cull.
Hopefully, we can now let them live in peace and appreciate them in our countryside and gardens.