The UK government’s chief scientist has advised ministers that badgers should be killed to prevent the spread of TB among cattle.
Sir David King says culling could be effective in areas that are contained, for example, by the sea or motorways.
His report follows a previous study that said culling badgers would be ineffective.
Read the rest of the article on the BBC website:
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
I have never heard that badgers can carry on bovine tbc to cattle ! Is this something especial for the UK?
We have quite many badgers here too, but they are not connected to any bovine disease.
Hope this issue is not about the same old problem that some animals are looked at as pests even if they are native to the fauna.
That’s the claim Ann, but I’m not convinced. The thought of 80% of Badgers being destroyed makes me sick. I’ve never seen a live one – only road kill.
This has been dragging on for eons now.
I’m not entirely convinced of the need for such a massive cull either but I’d probably just encourage rural people to go back to traditional recipes like Badger hams and badger stew.
That could be a nice accompaniment to grey squirrel pie.
The UK Environment Ministry is apparently preparing to poison massive numbers of them to save the red squirrel.
I have an old English game recipe book from the fifties with at least a half dozen squirrel and badger recipes (none for hedgehogs strangely).
Cattle are the primary source of bovine TB and badgers can be carriers. A badger cull can have no meaningful impact, in fact it can make it worse as other infected badgers move in to the culled district. Cattle will still be infected with bovine TB.
Control of cattle movements is the only real way to contain bovine TB.
The govts response is clearly political.
In the US deer are vectors of TB.
“The govts response is clearly political.”
Isn’t a political response what Governments do?
:I
“In the US deer are vectors of TB.”
Hmmmm….Venison.
http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/tb/isg/pdf/final_report.pdf
Bovine TB: The Scientific Evidence
A Science Base for a Sustainable Policy to Control TB in Cattle
An Epidemiological Investigation into Bovine Tuberculosis
6. Reactive culling was included in the RBCT as the most likely future policy option, being both logistically and politically implementable. However, RBCT results showed that reactive culling increased, rather than reduced, the incidence of TB in cattle, making this unacceptable as a future policy option. The failure of reactive culling to control cattle TB appears to be an
outcome of complex badger ecology and behaviour linked to the social disturbance of badgers brought about by culling. These matters are fully discussed in the report, and may help to explain the failure of past badger culling policies to control cattle TB.
9. After careful consideration of all the RBCT and other data presented in this report, including an economic assessment, we conclude that badger culling cannot meaningfully contribute to the future control of cattle TB in Britain.
I don’t know about badgers in the UK, but in the US, they are uniquely vicious fiends which kill for fun. They kill anything that moves, and mostly leave it to rot.
Around here, you see one, you shoot it if you’re equipped, and run like crazy if you’re not–or if you miss. I understand they get *extra* angry at people who can’t shoot straight.
A couple local farmers I know have been attacked by these things while tilling their fields. These critters actually crawled up the tractor to get at the farmer. One beat it to death with a wrench. The other jumped off the tractor and ran, and the tractor came to rest against a tree and stalled.
I suspect, but do not know, that TB is an “excuse” for eradicating these critters in the UK. A while ago, the claim was, kill them on account of Brucellosis.
The dog breed known as ‘Dachshund’ was bred specifically for entering badger burrows and hauling them out so that the badgers could be killed with cudgels. This breeding effort predates the “germ theory” of disease.
So in conclusion, I’d say, these omnicidal beasts are morally on a par with bedbugs, lice, fleas, drug-resistant Staph, and of course–malarial mosquitoes.
We don’t need ’em.
Thanks for your information Rog. Humans always need a scapegoat, or in this case, badger.
“So in conclusion, I’d say, these omnicidal beasts are morally on a par with bedbugs, lice, fleas, drug-resistant Staph, and of course–malarial mosquitoes.”
Can we add you to that list too Schiller?
Libby,
Please add Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and La Via Campesina to your list.
And I suppose you would like to see farmers pulled from their tractors and ripped apart by these beasts?
Someone with that attitude deserves being on the list.
So Schiller your answer is to wipe out anything that threatens human existence in any way (or more specifically your existence and well-being)? This includes animals most likley displaced by your so-called tractor-driving farmers that so-called climb up said machinery to attack said farmer? Are you telling me these farmers are not even aware such animals exist on their properties and can not take adequate precautiosn agaist them? Is the answer to actually make ALL badgers extinct(as your comment suggested) because in your opinion they are “not needed”?
Your lack of any comprehension about food webs and chains is startling, especially if you actually do work on the land. Your comments about annihilation of species and groups of people is particularly disturbing given I assume your are Jewish, and of all races, should know better.
Libby,
Since you equate human life on a par with vicious animals that kill for fun, put yourself on the list, too.
If I wanted to run a war, I’d anoint you the Minister of Truth.
Schiller, a quite harmless badger is living in my neighbourhood. What do they eat? Both plants and small game but as well wasp’s and wasp’s nests.
They do have a bad reputation mostly among rural people and hunters because they think the badger is a competitor for small game.
” My ” badger is living in an old foxe’s hole with many tunnels and entrances.
They have powerful teeth and jaws so any handling of badgers needs a grasper and a strong grip of its hind quarters.
Schiller,
You have no evidence the animal “killed for fun”, which is anthropomorphising an aimal you clearly have no idea about. Humans kill for “fun” Schiller – children, men, women, all religions and races have been recorded as doing so, whether it be of different species or their own.
Your comment makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, which is what many here have come to expect. If you wanted to run a war Schiller, you would be on a par with a “vicious animal that killed for fun.” Your catch cry would be “ignorance is truth”. War or no war Schiller, you would not be “anointing” me anything. If war, violence and total annihilation is your answer to anything that stands in your way of a good time, I’d say it says a lot more about you than me or badgers.
Badgers are found on most continents throughout the world. The honey badger, or ratel, uses a bird called a honey guide to direct it to sweet treats. They have a reputation for being aggressive, especially when confronted (funny that). I saw some kept in disgusting conditions in a zoo in Haifa. They are remarkably intelligent animals, being able to problem-solve and rudimentary tool use in order to travel and forage efficiently. Here is what one researcher wrote about the current threats to honey badgers:-
‘The honey badger has been heavily persecuted in some parts of southern and eastern Africa. This is largely because of the badger’s habit of raiding bee hives, but also because of predation on poultry and other livestock. Thousands of honey badgers have been trapped and poisoned as a result.
As part of his study, Keith Begg looked at trapping methods used by three beekeepers. He found that:
“Traps were seldom checked at intervals shorter than one week. As a result, trapped individuals were rarely discovered alive, having died from a combination of blood loss, bee venom, exhaustion and associated trauma.”
Keith also found that badgers would chew off and eat limbs caught in traps.
The results of Keith Begg’s survey suggest that the killing of honey badgers by beekeepers poses a substantial threat to the conservation of the species. The methods of killing also represent an unacceptable welfare problem.’
Schiller wrote:
>They kill anything that moves, and mostly leave it to rot.
He was oddly enough talking about badgers.
Schiller wrote:
> And I suppose you would like to see farmers pulled from their tractors and ripped apart by these beasts?
I saw no evidence that this is what Libby wanted to ‘see’. Are you misrepresenting contributors again Schiller? Are you lying again to suit your cause?
Schiller wrote:
>Since you equate human life on a par with vicious animals that kill for fun, put yourself on the list, too.
Ditto to my comment above.
Badger species include Eurasian, American, honey, hog, ferret and stink badgers (although these are now considered to be more closely related to skunks). Many are threatened or endangered throughout their ranges, including in North America.
In a time not too long ago ignorance and religion (and a few other factors) had the general populace of the ‘civilised’ world believe the Earth was flat. Those who disbelieved were killed. This type of ignorant dumb-ass thinking and desire for mindless killing has continued on throughout the world, and sadly we see two examples of it here.
Schiller wrote:
>We don’t need ’em.
The UK government chief scientist is trying to look like he is doing something/anything in the face of livestock disease hysteria – by the time the long-term consequences of such an action come around, he will be comfortably retired. As for the other, he has here adequately shown himself to abide by the same principles he so venomously accuses others of possessing – violence, misinformation, hatred of life, selfishness. The construction of an ‘extermination list’ by Schiller Thurkettle is too ironic to be true. Odd and very sad.
American badgers must either be a different breed or they must just be typically American. British badgers are shy creatures that do not attack humans – the idea of a badger climbing up into a tractor cab to attack the driver is plain ridiculous! I doubt very much if these ‘critters’ do that in America either – this sounds like an urban myth, with the emphasis on urban.
However, almost everyone agrees that badgers spread bovine TB in the UK, but the main disagreement is what we should do about it. Ignoring or denying the problem won’t make it go away, but any cull short of almost complete eradication is likely to make it worse. The prospect of an effective vaccine for cattle still seems a long way off. Even if cattle movements were completely stopped, this would not prevent contact between cattle and badgers on individual farms, nor the spread of TB via badgers from one farm to another.
By killing all cattle who react to the TB test we are probably increasing the genetic susceptibilty to the disease in our ‘national herd’.
The only way to solve the problem (of transmission between badgers and cattle) seems to be to prevent all contact between them. Keeping cattle indoors all the time, or at least in yards, and feeding them on cut grass – as they do in countries like Japan where available grassland is in short supply – would be one possible answer, and would incidentally lead to more efficient use of grassland. However, excluding cattle from grassland would be disastrous for the ecology of some of our most valuable grassland habitats.
So what is the answer… someone?
So about every seventh badger is infected by TB but so are 20 other species as well. So do we want to eradicate most animals as they MIGHT spread diseases and are potential carriers of diseases???
Of course NOT, especially when it has been proven that a badger cull only will make it worse.
It seems like the UK Scientific Advisor has caved in for pressure to do SOMETHING, and unfortunately he has choosen a solution that is scientifically unsound.
It’s obvious you Antipodeans and others have no notion of badgers in North America.
Why argue with people who consider facts to be lowly pedestrian objects? Egads.
You just don’t geddit do you? After your sheep belching ‘facts’ Schiller why on Earth would anyone believe or trust you?