Scientific Studies demonstated that a badger cull will at best only eradicate TB in cattle at rates between 11-16%. We will still be left with 84% of the problem of TB remaining in cattle after 70% of our badgers have been culled. The Co Founder of Conservatives Against Fox Hunting raised the issue of the poor return of results at such a high price for badgers to Jim Paice, the Agricultural Minister at the badger cull meeting in the House Of Lords in January 2012. The Minister replied to our Co Founder that the cull would be taking place with a series of other measures.
We support the measures of vaccination and support the scientific evidence that a cull will not eradicate TB in cattle.
Conservatives Against Fox Hunting ask you to please contact Caroline Spelman, Secretary of State for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to speak out against the badger cull. You can also contact your MP and ask them to raise your concerns about the cull with DEFRA and Caroline Spelman to help oppose the cull.
People are concerned about how the cull will affect tourism. Concerns have been raised about shooting taking place at night using rifles where people may be camping or be present nearby.
We are part of the coalition of animal welfare organisations against the badger cull, including leading charities of the RSPCA and The League Against Cruel Sports.
Following the disappointing outcome of the Judicial Review, to help prevent the badger cull from going ahead the League Against Cruel Sports are asking for your support with the following:
http://www.league.org.uk/content/643/Badger-Cull
• Signing our “a million against the cull” petition www.league.org.uk/badgerpetition
• Joining a local campaigning group, if you are local to or live within the trial sites
• Signing the declaration against culling on your land, if you are a landowner within the trial areas
http://www.league.org.uk/content/643/Badger-Cull
From the League Against Cruel Sports website:
Why are they going to cull badgers?
The trials are part of government efforts to tackle the spread of bovine tuberculosis amongst cattle. The disease has a devastating affect on farmers and tens of thousands of cattle are slaughtered each year as a result.
Badgers were discovered to be infected with bTB in the mid 1970s and they have since been implicated in the transmission of infection to cattle.
Following a ten year study in which 10,000 badgers were trapped and culled to establish whether localised culling of badgers helps to reduce bTB the Independent Scientific Group (ISG) who carried out the experiment concluded that ‘badger culling cannot meaningfully contribute to the future control of cattle TB in Britain’.
Read some of the scientific arguments from both sides about the effectiveness of badger culling.
What will happen in the trials?
The trials are designed to test the effectiveness, humaneness and safety of the controlled shooting of badgers. If after a year free-shooting is ruled out, then farmers will be legally obliged to continue the cull on a much more costly ‘trap and shoot’ basis for the remaining years of their licence.
If the trials go ahead then shooting will start in autumn in two areas the first in west Somerset, partly in Taunton Deane and the second mainly within the Forest of Dean and Tewkesbury, and partly in the districts of Wychavon, Malvern Hills and west Gloucestershire. The trials will take place over six weeks.
The shooting will take place at night, and will be carried out by trained marksmen using high-powered rifles. Their remit will be to kill at least 70% of the badgers in each of the trial areas. The killing will be non-selective, but the majority of those killed will be healthy. Of the small percentage of badgers which may be carrying bovine TB, very few will be infectious and therefore capable of transmitting the disease.
