An animal conservation group has welcomed a Government decision to shelve plans for widespread badger culls.
It is feared the animals spread bovine tuberculosis, but the Wildwood Trust at Herne Common, near Canterbury, said there is little risk to farmers’ cattle and welcomed the news that a massive national cull was no longer on the cards.
Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said instead £20 million would be spent developing vaccines for cattle and badgers. “I have decided that while such a cull might work, it might also not work,” he said.
“It could end up making the disease worse if it was not sustained over time or delivered effectively.
“And public opposition, including the unwillingness of some landowners to take part, would render this more difficult. I do not think it would be right to take this risk.” The decision was good news according to Peter Smith, chief executive of the Wildwood Trust.
He said: “It is infuriating that the subject of culling keeps coming up. All the evidence indicates that badgers are not responsible for the spread of bovine TB, yet farmers still blame these animals for the problem.”
He said the Government’s own independent scientific findings broadly confirmed what the Wildwood Trust and conservationists such as Sir David Attenborough had always said – that culling badgers would not control TB in cattle.
Mr Smith added: “The independent research focused efforts to control bovine TB on the real issues such as cattle density on farms and the practice of moving millions of cows around the country for short-term economic gain. I have great sympathy for individual farmers who lose their livelihood due to TB, but it is deplorable to use the lives of badgers as a weapon to get the taxpayer to pay for the failings of the cattle industry.”
He said most TB is spread by 14 million movements of cattle in Britain each year.
But National Farmers’ Union president Peter Kendall said the decision would be challenged in the courts. He said: “This is a disgraceful abdication of responsibility by Hilary Benn. To admit that a cull might work, and then push the already crippling burden of TB controls further onto the farming industry is just plain wrong.
“It is ridiculous to expect farmers to continue fighting TB with one hand tied behind their back.
“At a time when we have the Prime Minister telling the public not to waste food, it is astonishing that the Government is prepared to continue to preside over the needless waste of tens of thousands of productive cattle.”
POSTED: 13/07/2008 08:00:00
Bookmark with:
Email to a friend: