Vaccine is answer not killing badgers
THERE have been some dark days of late not just for humanity but for much of our wildlife, many species are facing extinction.
Perhaps the darkest episode has been the badger cull, where badgers have been blamed for the spread of bovine tuberculosis, causing the deaths of a huge amount of cattle.
This has been devastating to the farming community but the Government’s solution was to point the finger at our resident badger population.
I understand that bovine TB can be found in badgers, but it can also infect deer, goats, cats, dogs and llamas.
Badgers tend to stay put and don’t move around much, unless you wipe them out in one area and others move in - but cows do move around.
Jo Smith, chief executive of Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, expands: “The main cause of bovine TB is from cattle-to-cattle transmission.
“Badgers are not the main culprit yet thousands are killed every year.
“For years, The Wildlife Trusts have been at the forefront of vaccinating badgers.
“It is now time for Government to step up its commitment and implement a badger vaccination strategy alongside the deployment of a vaccination for cattle against the disease.”
The latest plan for licences seems to be a desperate attempt by the Government to prove that culling badgers was the answer to this horrible problem.
In more than 40 areas of the UK up to 75,000 badgers could be killed this year – that will include 3,000 in Derbyshire this autumn. It takes the total to around 200,000 shot badgers since the cull began.
The cull hasn’t been licensed in Greater Manchester, although it has touched on its boundaries and the Lancashire Wildlife Trust has always stood firm that it will resist any attempted cull here.
To be honest, the treatment of badgers in the North West has been pretty dire anyway.
Our populations of these magnificent animals have never been massive after centuries of badger baiting, where ‘hard men’ dig out badgers to fight with their dogs.
These people cannot look after the countryside, their own pets or themselves – maybe we could look at a vaccination programme for them?
Badgers are shy creatures, happy to do their own thing but they will defend their territory and their families, which make them appealing to the badger-baiting thugs.
They must be shy because we hardly ever seen them, despite the fact they are our largest land predators and have a pretty distinctive black and white coat.
They live in burrows known as setts and, if you ever get to observe them, they take your breath away with their sheer beauty especially when their cubs are around.
Jo continues: “We continue to call on the Government to end the killing of badgers to fight bovine TB in cattle and ask for robust measures that will see better cattle testing, roll out of a cattle vaccine and stricter movement control of cattle.
“Our protected wildlife, our farmers and the dairy industry deserve much better.”
That is right, it is not just about the badgers or the farmers, it is about finding a sensible solution to this dreadful disease.