Badger cull to go ahead

[Dougan]

Agreed for 'non-native' but not endemic - Culling can sometimes just leave a 'vacuum' which encourages breeding...

...I read another post recently which said that someone was shooting hundreds of foxes a year, and couldn't understand where they were all coming from ( :roll: ) - a possible solution there, would be to just let 1 population stay and establish it's territory...see if a relationship could be established with it, and only control problem or diseased animals....

....Or, better still, reintroduce their natural predators..... wolves and bears

Reintroducing natural predators would be a solution, but I can't honestly see it being taken up. Certainly not to the level that would restore a natural balance.

Culling could encourage breeding, then again, so could starvation caused by a harsh winter and over population. Culling gives us the opportunity to knock a population back quickly to sustainable levels and to manage it into a stable healthy population.

Maintaining a natural balance is what we should be aiming for.

Obviously I wasn't being serious about reintroducing bears and wolves....

Anyway Mr 'impeccable logic' ( :P ), we'll have agree to disagree again...as I'll admit to being inflexible on the badger cull issue...certainly while there are alternative solutions....

[Dougan]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... rissa.html

She hasn't got a clue what she's talking about - if they were healthy enough to eat (i.e. no TB in the population), then there wouldn't be the issue in the first place!

And she's only piped up on the issue, as she's just released her Christmas book...and wants publicity...shame on her!

To quote an acronym I've seen used on here before - she needs to drink a large cup of STFU!

[Dougan]

This was on newsnight tonight - And the RSPCA were on, and do support a boycott of milk from cull areas...I've got mixed feelings about it, in that I'm happy that opposition to the cull is having an effect...but don't like the fact that the farmers are getting the s*** end of the stick again...

...the price of milk (and other supermarket staples) is so low that farmers have been making losses for a while - I understand why we have to have a free market, but can't the government and consumers see that on some things, there need to be pricing regulation...

...would it bother anyone on this site if the price of milk went up a few pence, if it helped sort out the dairy industry?

[meles meles]

...would it bother anyone on this site if the price of milk went up a few pence, if it helped sort out the dairy industry?

We're thinking of launching a campaign to get the price of cough lozenges reduced by a few pennies...

[Jenks]

Letter from the Telegraph...

Badger cure-all

SIR – We used to buy badger sandwiches (Matt, September 30) from our pub for an annual badger feast. We also took along a jar to collect badger grease. Rubbed in to the chest, it kept off many ailments.

Gerry Masters
Ilchester, Somerset

Jenks

[Dougan]

...would it bother anyone on this site if the price of milk went up a few pence, if it helped sort out the dairy industry?

We're thinking of launching a campaign to get the price of cough lozenges reduced by a few pennies...

It's taken me a week to get that :lol:

[Dougan]

We also took along a jar to collect badger grease. Rubbed in to the chest, it kept off many ailments.

Personally I advise against attempting to rub anything into the chest of a wild badger :P

[Jenks]

Once again from the Telegraph...


The proposed cull of badgers in west Gloucestershire in an effort to eradicate TB in cattle is beginning to take a familiar turn. As with the planting of GM crops or animal experimentation for medical purposes, the bully boys are starting to get their way. Protesters are posting notices across the area earmarked for the cull, warning families to keep their children and pets inside in case they are shot by stray bullets. Given the way the exercise is being set up with trained marksmen this is simply scaremongering.
Farmers are concerned about the backlash from activists, with milk boycotts and other direct action threatened for those engaged in “questionable activities”. Now there is talk of postponing the cull until next year. It is understandable that some farmers are reluctant to participate in this exercise if they and their families risk being intimidated. Similar tactics have been used in the past to disrupt trials of GM crops and to terrorise scientists working in animal laboratories, jeopardising efforts to eradicate diseases in plants and humans to the advantage of all. Nobody would choose to kill badgers, but what is proposed is a pilot scheme to see if a cull can eradicate a disease that causes suffering both in the wild animals and in domestic cattle. Last year, 26,000 cows were slaughtered as a result of contracting bovine TB.
The Government is due to issue a further licence for a trial cull in Somerset within the next few weeks. It is important this should proceed and that farmers are offered every reassurance that the authorities will do whatever they can to defend them from scaremongering and intimidatory tactics. That includes Government ministers consistently making the scientific case for the cull; any postponement now and the agitators will have won again.

#########

I read that the 'Stop the Cull' petition has attracted close on 150,000 votes. I wonder just how many of those who have voted, fully understand the issue. Or are just voting for a critter with a pretty stripy face.(Bambi effect) I also wonder just how many would have voted had the creature involved looked like this..Precious few I fancy

http://www.arkive.org/brown-rat/rattus- ... hotos.html

The government have taken the decision to allow the cull based on the advice of the best information presented by DEFRAs scientists are these scientists wicked sadists.... of course not.

Fact. Badgers do transmit bTB to cattle.
Fact. The Badger is not an endangered species.
Fact The cull is not about to eradicate the species.
Fact Compensation for the slaughter of reactors is costing a the tax payer a lot of money annually .

In spite of not having the insight that comes with studying for a degree in 'environmental studies' I am inclined to believe DEFAs scientists, the cull is necessary and should go ahead.

Jenks

[Chapuis]

Well said Jenks - rational and logical reply.

[Christel]

I see nothing rational nor logical about culling a species in order to get rid of a man made problem. Of course it will work, culling the badgers, that is logic for hens.

Same goes for the yearly human death toll on the roads, that will be sorted if there were no cars

I do not agree with the actions taken by the activists at all however I would like to point out that it is not just one group of people being against the cull, there are activists, people with degrees and I am sure other groups in society who without in depth knowledge just do not think it sounds right.

Think about it, what sort of society do we live in when culling is the answer to a problem that ought to be under control with better farming techniques supported by their own government? We are letting the farmers down, the very same we depend upon for food, shame on us and shame on our government.