Badgers

@jen_jen wrote:

So signing a petition that says “We urge the government to stop the cull and implement the more sustainable and humane solution of both a vaccination programme for badgers and cattle, along with improved testing and biosecurity.” is pretty meaningless when there isn’t an effective vaccine available then… :?

Sorry Jen I was being facetious but not directly aimed at you.

There is a vaccine for badgers and it is already being deployed in some areas:

http://www.fera.defra.gov.uk/wildlife/ecologyManagement/bvdp/

However, the government prefers to press ahead with culling. No doubt those who enjoy the disgusting “sport” of badger baiting will see this as legitimising their own killing. I envisage badger baiting will increase. :roll:

@jen_jen wrote:

Badger baiting is illegal and I suspect that the majority of badger baiters would be highly unlikely to bother applying for a licence to cull, undertake the training required or comply with the controls required. The approach to culling wouldn’t satisfy those who enjoy badger baiting.

An intelligent person knows the difference between culling and killing for “sport”, I’m sure you can debate an already emotive topic without resorting to that kind of argument.

You’ve totally missed my point. :roll:

@(f)politics? wrote:

. . . . . so hundreds and thousand on differing weeks is perfectly accurate . . .

. . . not the main point of the thread, I know but no, no it’s not. It’s not even an approximate average. Sorry to go on, but bad maths is worse than bad grammar.

The point being though whether it be 500 or a thousand on average a week, it is still 500 animals that often farmers have been up all night helping that cows mother give birth to that animal, raised it, even formed a bond with it, and in many cases the bloodlines have been developed to produce better milkers over decades, just to have that animal slaughtered, because of a tb reaction to a test. That one single animal is important to that farmer, everyone of them is and not particularly financially, but the years dedicated into that whole herd,each and every one of them, to an extent many could never begin to understand.
Sorry to go on but Ignorance to the whole picture, or indeed even acknowledging a point whether with grammatical or numerical errors or not, annoys me more than nick picking to score a point. But if it makes u feel better,
an edit to my previous post
“approx 500 hundred cattle are sent to slaughter every week”
While saving the badger too would be perfect, we need to tackle this problem from every side, and until vaccines are available and working, i feel that unfortunately these pilot cullings need to go ahead, so we can atleast attempt to halt or atleast slow this ever growing problem, before it is a thousand a week instead of 500.
With over a quarter of a million badgers in this country, to vaccinate them all will take decades, literally, we don’t have time to wait that long, by all means keep vaccinating as they have been doing in small areas and very small numbers a year, eventually we will get there i’m sure and just keep your fingers crossed the vaccine works and has no long term effects, as this they don’t know, and in the bad areas “hot spots”, continue with the tb testing and slaughtering process, proceed with the culling, and hopefully at some stage the vaccine can overtake the culling and we will have rid of TB again, or atleast in the main. Sadly whatever way, it is going to take probably 10 years to see any positive or indeed negative outcome to this, but leaving it will only make it that much worse, and we may well have to end up totally eradicating the badger for letting it go on so long, and none of us want that.

@(f)politics? wrote:

badger baiting is all to do with the dogs, the strongest, the bravest etc etc, sadly it is something that still goes on, on the quiet, although it is illegal, the culling, i believe will be done with shooters not dogs, so they couldn’t be more different, so i’m not sure how this will encourage baiters, it is still illegal, and is using a completely different weapon, so they won’t be able to hide behind the culling cop out, so i’m not sure i understand that point?

:roll: