Stop the Badger Cull

Despite the brilliant success of the autumn campaign against the proposed badger cull, which culminated in last year's cull being cancelled and an overwhelming vote in parliament against the cull, the government announced this week that a new cull will go ahead in two test areas (with one reserve area in addition) later this year. The aim of the cull is to reduce the incidence of bovine TB in cattle. The evidence overwhelmingly indicates that a cull will have no meaningful impact on bovine TB, and indeed the most recent figures (without a cull) show that bTB incidence in cattle is falling.

For more information visit the Team Badger and Brian May's Save Me site. And sign the petition if you haven't already done so at: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/38257

Meanwhile enjoy a few pictures of one of our local badgers, thankfully well outside any prospective cull area, taken this evening.


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Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100mm f/2.8L macro IS USM lens.

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This Post Has 10 Comments

  1. gdare

    2 Mar 2013

    They don't give up, eh? :irked:

  2. derWandersmann

    2 Mar 2013

    "Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain."
    —Friedrich Schiller

  3. claudeb

    2 Mar 2013

    D'awww, cute badger.

    And not only they don't give up, Darko, the UK government is going directly against popular opinion, scientific evidence AND a vote in the Parliament. By now, it's starting to look like a dictatorship.

  4. SittingFox

    2 Mar 2013

    It is one of those daft times in which all sides should be in agreement that the cull is bad (for conservationists, for democracy and for dairy farmers) and yet here the government goes again.

    Meanwhile, Saskatchewan's attempt to 'control' coyotes by killing 71,000 of them was so 'successful' that they rebounded within three years, as it always will due to the coyote's population dynamics. It failed, and even assuming (with some justification) that these people are devoid of all empathy towards wild animals, you'd think the logical move would be to use the many cheap and effective non-lethal ways to keep coyotes and livestock apart. Instead, the rural governments have voted to try the cull again, although it seems the provincial govt hasn't the money to fund it.

  5. Words

    4 Mar 2013

    Felix, you're not wrong. They would like it that way. Problem is that they made so many promises to the farm lobby about this, and about bringing back fox hunting to appease other groups, that they feel their personal credibility is at stake. Maybe we should tell them they don't have any.

  6. Words

    4 Mar 2013

    Darko, sadly they don't, even though a cull won't do what they want it to do. All politics and no reason.

  7. Words

    4 Mar 2013

    Adele, the politics of wildlife culls are very weird. The evidence against is so strong, and the economics also lean the same way. Sad, but I think the current cull is already faltering as there are all sorts of disputes about numbers once again. It's a mess.

  8. Words

    4 Mar 2013

    dW, good quote. :up:

  9. derWandersmann

    5 Mar 2013

    Felix already knows my remedy for such a "government". It involves lampposts and hempen rope. Sometime a little hot lead, properly applied, is helpful.

  10. Words

    7 Mar 2013

    Interesting approach 😆

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