Badger cull: New licences ‘to be banned after 2022’
Is it just me , I don’t understand why we have to wait until 2022 to end this brutal outdated practice ?
From the BBC
New mass badger cull licences are to be stopped after 2022 under plans to phase out culling of the wild animals. The environment secretary George Eustice has launched a consultation on the next phase of the government’s strategy to eradicate bovine TB (bTB) in England by 2038. The drive will instead focus on vaccinating badgers and cattle. The first cull zones were created in 2013 in Somerset and Gloucestershire. Mr Eustice said: “bTB is one of the most difficult and intractable animal health challenges that England faces today.”
Farmers said it was necessary to control the disease that devastates the beef and dairy industries. Current policy enables four-year intensive cull licences in defined areas, with scope for a further five years of supplementary culling.
In a statement to the House of Commons, Mr Eustice said last year more than 27,000 cattle in England were slaughtered causing “devastation and distress for hard-working farmers and rural communities”. “Badger culling is one of the most contentious and divisive policies within our bTB eradication strategy,” Mr Eustice added. The farming community has invested heavily in badger culling, which the evidence shows has played a critical role in helping to start turn the tide on this terrible disease. “But we were clear that culling badgers indefinitely is not acceptable.
“My proposed approach will enable us to complete the objective we set out to achieve when we started the culls. It will also support our stated intention of phasing out culling over the next few years.”
Meet the Model – Brian the Badger
WILDLIFE WEDNESDAY
Wildlife Wednesday 5-5-2021 Another Wednesday at the Meadow Hide , this time with my wife Anne in the co-pilots seat. Or should it be wild weather Wednesday ? It’s May and today it rained , at times rather heavily, then bright sunshine , then rain , then hailstones plus thunder and lightning. Yes we had […]
THE FOX WHO WANTS TO BE A HOG
we have two hedgehog feeding bowls in our garden , protected by a clear plastic box . However this young fox has developed a taste for the hedgehogs supper…………
Maybe finding the right ballance between culling and vaccination…. ?
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