What's A Few Badgers Between Friends?

[AB Editor]

So, they're rolling out a badger cull trial in Gloucester...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-23845851

... And there will be protests, naturally. Will you be joining them? Or do you think the cull trial is worthwhile?

[shoota]

Ban gness from this one please Ed.

[weecalf]

Sob save out badgers

[WyeDyed]

Correct me if I'm wrong but, last time they tried a cull (in Herefordshire I think) all it did was spread the TB to new areas as the Badgers moved away from the danger?

[shoota]

Which is why a nationwide lifting of the Badgers protected status is necessary WD.

[AlwaysConfused]

I hope what needs to be done is done to eradicate the problem.

[youngmafbog]

We need to cull as ONE of the measures.

Get the numbers down and then vaccinate the remainder.

[DJHawkes]

It's not the badgers fault that they have TB, wild animals don't naturally catch the TB virus, domestic animals pass it on to wild animals, better administered anti-TB drugs should have been developed by now and the government should have helped the farmers to innoculate properly decades ago, too late now, blame the badgers.

[WyeDyed]

I doesn't seem fair seeing as the badgers probably got the TB from cattle in the first place.

[pixie373]

It's awful. They should just concentrate on vaccination research

[factor-fiction]

> "last time they tried a cull (in Herefordshire I think) all it did was spread the TB to new areas as the Badgers moved away from the danger?"

How did the badgers know? Maybe a mole inside DEFRA tipped them off

[Old_Geezer]

Instinctively I object to farmers (or others) decimating wildlife because they are failing to control a problem they have. I understand I may feel differently if it were rats or mice though; however I think badgers are the other side of a line that separates vermin that are doing something to cause an issue, and creatures that are the victims of a nasty disease.

Given there is a disease issue the efforts to solve it should be aimed towards the bug, not the animal that can catch it same as the livestock.

I feel it has to be possible to control disease by now. It's not the 17th century or something.

[woofgang]

won't be joining the protest but i think its a stupid idea.

[DJHawkes]

it's making out that badgers are to blame that pisses me off.

[shoota]

My take on this is that if there were similar regulations applying to Badgers as currently apply to deer then population densities could be lawfully controlled by farmers who have a problem.
If it works for one species why not both?
Do badgers still need the current level of protection given them back in the days of widespread badgerbaiting?

[DJHawkes]

Bovine TB is carried in cattle and not wild animals. Deer can catch it, imagine if they started to cull Deer like they are culling badgers, mind you, half the MP's would be out there with their beaters binoculars and shotguns before you could say boo.

[Old_Geezer]

Yeah but I like venison. Never tried badger.

[factor-fiction]

I think deer culling does go on, though. I saw something on Countryfile or the One Show where I was surprised to see they were shooting deer to control the numbers on the outskirts of a town (somewhere in Scotland I think.)

I'm not sure it's a case of 'which animal is to blame'- it's just seen as the most effective way of dealing with the problem

[DJHawkes]

you can't eat venison if the animal had TB, my grandad and mum had TB in 1942, mum had to have half a rib removed so that they could do something to her lungs, they had a small dairy herd, the lot had TB, no milk produced, grandad had to go and work in the weaving sheds down in Tod.

[shoota]

Deer are culled over the entire length of these isles.
That is why they are not a (significant) problem.
This problem has arisen because of the badgers protected status and the consequent inability of farmers to control dangerous overpopulation.

[Octavius]

Nothing to do with the cull but on my drive across Derbyshire this morning I did notice 3 dead badgers by the roadside within a distance of about 30 yards. Maybe there is an over-population ?