What’s black, white and red all over? Sounds like the start of a bad joke; however, it is slowly becoming the punchline of a crime that is ripping through the British countryside.
Bovine tuberculosis, also known as Bovine TB, is an infectious disease that affects cattle. Bovine TB can spread from creature to creature, in many different ways. But the main infection area is through the nose and mouth, as well as through infected milk and environmental contamination. According to the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, Bovine TB ‘can also infect and cause disease in many other mammals,’[1] Despite this, many people believe that the main cause of the spread of Bovine TB is the badger. Badgers are protected by the Protection of Badgers Act 1992, even though the culls are still going ahead in Somerset and Gloucestershire.
The debate on the effectiveness of the culling is still ongoing. Recently, the minsters have expanded the culling area by 70% [2] meaning that there will be a total of 32 sites where legal culls will be carried out, in 2018, across the southern counties. This has increased from the 22 sites last year. Killing over 42,000 badgers, all to stop the spread of Bovine TB. This is an extreme solution to a problem that can be solved through the use of vaccinations, which is a humane way to deal with the spread.
Organisations such as the Wildlife Trust, the RSPCA and the British Veterinary Association are opposed to the increased cull of the badger population as it is a brutal act against nature. Even, the British public is against the culls. The organisations are supported by scientists discovering that:
‘Surveys for signs of badger activity indicate that badger density decreased with repeated proactive culling. Thus, if the risk to cattle scale with badger density, the beneficial effect of culling would be expected to increase after repeated culls. However, data also show that the prevalence of M.bovis infection in badgers increased on the successive cull. This effect might be expected to reduce any additional beneficial effects of repeated badger culling on cattle TB incidence.’ 3
The main reason that badgers are blamed for the spread of Bovine TB. because both animals could share the same living space; this could be the same field. Cattle graze different fields during the year and badgers may have their burrows, called a Sett – a large section of tunnels and chambers that are under the ground – in the same fields.
Badgers are a beloved feature of the countryside; this is evidenced by the constant use of the badger in British literature. They appear in works that are classics, such as The Tale of Mr Tod by Beatrix Potter and The Wind in the Willow by Kenneth Grahame. So, the question is that why are the majority of MP’s voting for the slaughter of thousands of innocent badgers? When vaccines are so much more humane solution. In 2012, the badger cull divided the House of Commons. 146 for the cull and 27 against, the for culling opinion seems to have increased through the 6 years since this vote. Despite the overwhelming support against the cull.
[1] Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, What is Bovine Tuberculosis (TB)?, https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/articles/what-bovine-tuberculosis-tb> [Accessed 6 November 2018]
2 Damian Carrington, ‘Huge increase in badger cull will see up to 42,000 shot, Guardian, 13 September 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/sep/13/huge-increase-in-badger-cull-will-see-up-to-42000-shot> [accessed 6 November 2018]
3 The Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB, Bovine TB: The Scientific Evidence, Final Report of the Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB, June 2007, London, page 89, http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20081108133322/http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/tb/isg/pdf/final_report.pdf>
4 RSCPA, Badgers, https://www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/wildlife/inthewild/badgers [accessed 6 November 2018]
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