The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Dougan wrote:

Jenks wrote:

Anyway you've clearly been dazzled by her obvious charm and beauty

That is a particularly crass and ungallant thing to say.


Jenks

You don't seem to be getting this either - I have stated quite clearly why I believe she made the story, and what I think of that....

.....so why would I care about being crass and ungallant about her?

Dougan..

so why would I care about being crass and ungallant about her?

Well I can't speak for you. But I would hate to be thought 'crass or ungallant.' clearly it doesn't trouble you.

Jenks

Jenks,

Has it occurred to you that with a cull it is all badgers and not just the infected ones that are being culled?

On Saturday I had the pleasure (hmm>?!) of spending the day on a boat with someone who is involved in the study and is an advocate of the vaccination of ALL wild badgers, we had an interesting debate/discussion - but he argument just did not hold water (no pun!)

In order for vaccination to be effective, they need to be vaccinated every year. (within 2-3 weeks of the anniversary anyway) - now in order to do this, they will need to trap the badgers, they will then need to be permanently identified, along with some form of recording of when they were vaccinated - they then need to catch each and every badger yearly (within that 2-3 week window) and then vaccinate them again.

Despite my efforts to point out that the logistics of such a trapping exercises would be fruitless and nigh on impossible - he was still adamant that this was the way forward and that they would easily get enough "volunteers" to enable trapping to work.

Trapped by volunteers? - that really is a recipe for disaster, without the logistics of trying to trap every badger in the UK once a year!!

I just do not see how vaccinations could work.

Mike

christel wrote:Jenks,

Has it occurred to you that with a cull it is all badgers and not just the infected ones that are being culled?

Christel..

Yes that had occurred to me, and whilst regrettable I'm afraid for a cull to be successful it would be necessary. Don't forget with other species Deer for instance, Yes if possible the old or those in poor condition are the prime target but many perfectly healthy animals are shot purely to meet the requirement of the cull.

Jenks

MiLisCer wrote:On Saturday I had the pleasure (hmm>?!) of spending the day on a boat with someone who is involved in the study and is an advocate of the vaccination of ALL wild badgers, we had an interesting debate/discussion - but he argument just did not hold water (no pun!)

In order for vaccination to be effective, they need to be vaccinated every year. (within 2-3 weeks of the anniversary anyway) - now in order to do this, they will need to trap the badgers, they will then need to be permanently identified, along with some form of recording of when they were vaccinated - they then need to catch each and every badger yearly (within that 2-3 week window) and then vaccinate them again.

Despite my efforts to point out that the logistics of such a trapping exercises would be fruitless and nigh on impossible - he was still adamant that this was the way forward and that they would easily get enough "volunteers" to enable trapping to work.

Trapped by volunteers? - that really is a recipe for disaster, without the logistics of trying to trap every badger in the UK once a year!!

I just do not see how vaccinations could work.

Mike

Mike..

I just do not see how vaccinations could work.

At the moment I don't believe they could work either. Until a vaccine is developed that is workable/viable. Controlled Hard Culling is the best option IMHO.

Jenks

+1 for Jenks and Mi Lis Cer

As I write, this thread has had 1245 views. With 105 replies from 19 people. If you deduct The number of jokey one liners, or not really related to the issue posts, etc. It seems to me that very few people have formed a strong opinion on this issue.......... Am I correct in thinking this?

Jenks

Jenks, with such an emotive issue, it may well be that folk are unwilling to add comment and get caught up in a slanging match?
Also, it is a time consuming topic to enter, and I am afraid, a rather depressing one, as there is no happy medium for either view.
At least there have been no unpleasantries.

Typically BBC "C****tryfile" has a pretty picture of a badger as its winner for the calender photo.
Strong support for farming as usual.

Shoot the lot of them I say, they make canny sporrans.

Seriously though ever since we started domesticating animals and cultivating the land then our interference means that we have to take responsibilty for managing nature however much treehugging bambi shaggers might want it otherwise. We have a lunatic up in Scotland wanting to reintroduce the wolf for heavens sake, the Wolf was hunted to extinction for very good reasons.

Anyway whilst I am no fan of blood baths for the sake of them badger populations do need to be managed, whilst I have very little sympathy for the modern agri-chemical, supermarket pandering, land barons, they are not farmers in my meaning of the word, the issues of bovine TB and an excess of badgers as evidenced to me by the plethora of striped roadkill that is now littering our highways along with the buggers brazenly snuffling round my croft for the first time in my lifetime, something needs to be done to manage the population.

Whilst it would be good to tackle the disease aspect of badgers with vaccination I just cannot see how it would work in practice as has been already articulated here, lets face it badgers are bad tempered b@stards.

Me I'd put a bounty and quotas on them and let nature take its course.

Much as I enjoy wild life, alive in its natural habitat as well as on my plate, and abhor wanton cruelty, animals are not humans and when we remove natural predators we need to address the imbalance that causes.

As for human culling, globally we seem to be doing OK in some places so it isn't as one sided as bambi shaggers would have it, nature is hard, cold and cruel however much we would like it to be all doe eyed, warm, soft and cuddly.

All life dies, its just a matter of when and how. The trick is what we do with the time before it happens.

Personally I am neither in favour or against the cull because quite frankly in spite of what those opposed to the cull say all previous attempts to look at this scientifically have been compromised in one way or another. What I am opposed to is the terrorism that is being encouraged and promoted by certain radical groups or individuals. It will be certainly be interesting to see what the results of these trials are if they are given the chance to actually carry out the trial because the situation at the moment of slaughtering cattle as a means of control is simply horrendous.