Comment

The RBCT resulted in the deaths of 11,000 badgers - most of whom were perfectly healthy. Photo by Sue Boyes-Korkis.

THE majority of the Wiltshire public who attended a debate held at Devizes Town Hall were not in favour of slaughtering badgers as a means of controlling tuberculosis.

The debate, held on Thursday, January 31, was organised and chaired by Wiltshire based wildlife film-maker and part-time farmer Mark Fletcher.

A packed room heard vice-president of the NFU, Meurig Raymond, and organic commodity producer, Peter Gantlett, put forward their motion it is "increasingly necessary and right to put the management of disease and needs of food production above the rights of animals."

Mr Raymond has previously stated: "Removing diseased badgers from the countryside is not just the only course of action now open to the government, it is the right course of action as well.

"It will help reduce the appalling numbers of cattle that are being slaughtered prematurely because of TB, it will give the farmer victims of this terrible disease some hope for the future, it will reduce the risk of other wildlife becoming infected, it will take some of the pressure off species like hedgehogs and ground-nesting birds, and ultimately, it will be in the best interests of the badger as well."

The NFU is calling on the government to take action.

Warren Cresswell of environmental consultants Cresswell Associates and Malcolm Clark of the Wiltshire Badger Group opposed the motion.

The public were asked to vote on the motion as they arrived and again at the end of the evening as a means of gauging their opinion.

Malcolm Clark said that after listening to the debate there had been a significant swing against the motion and in favour of badgers.

He said: "The arguments put by Warren and I clearly influenced those of the public who came to listen and learn.

"The pro-badger arguments were based on sound scientific evidence which has come out of the Randomised Badger Culling Trial which proves the vast majority of outbreaks are due to cattle-to-cattle transmissions of the disease." The trial began in 1998 and ended in 2006, and was designed by the Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB and investigated how bovine TB spread between cattle, badgers and other wildlife. Mr Clark added after the meeting: "This is a tremendous result, it has shown that whatever the farmers say, the public do not want badgers to be slaughtered.

"Farmers must learn to live with wildlife and not see wildlife as something to destroy.

"The RBCT resulted in the deaths of 11,000 badgers - most of whom were perfectly healthy.

"Now we have the proof cattle are the problem, the NFU should accept the science, stop living in the past and move forward embracing what we have learned and resolving the problem as recommended by the scientists."

Organiser, Mr Fletcher: "It was a really brilliant debate.

"The standards were incredibly high and there were some very moving stories from both sides and the audience, I think, responded to it."

2:41pm Thursday 14th February 2008

Print

Email this

Comment