English badger cull gets the green light from the High Court

Bad news for badgers - yesterday (12th July) The Badger Trust failed in its High Court bid to prevent the mass slaughter of badgers in England. The government argues that this measure is necessary to prevent the spread of bovine TB around cattle populations – a fundamentally flawed approach to a problem that has nothing to do with indigenous British carnivorous mammals and everything to do with dangerous modern intensive farming practises.

The Department of Food, Agriculture and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) plan for a trial cull in West Gloucestershire and West Somerset was deemed lawful; this time round the combined agribusiness and shotgun wielding oik lobbies won out against animal welfare concerns and science. The scientific consensus is that a cull is not only unnecessary but could actually exacerbate the problem.

The only bit of good news so far is that the bloodlust seems to be confined to the English - all other parts of the UK - Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have proved considerably safer territory for the monochrome mustelids. Scotland has no plans for badger culls, and both the Northern Irish parliament and the Welsh Assembly have both recently ordered a programme of vaccinating rather than killing.

The government's policy has left observers scratching their heads. DEFRA's own study into the effectiveness of culling, the UK Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT), showed that far from reducing incidents of TB a cull can actually contribute to the spread of one, as badger populations disperse when they flee from their hunters, taking any diseases they have to new areas where they may infect new cattle herds. Not only did the government's own study suggest that a cull may not work, but the 'strategy' about to be implemented in England is untested and much more risky to all concerned - whereas in the RBCT badgers were trapped then shot, the policy about to be rolled out, “free shooting�, is exactly that - paying people to shoot badgers as they roam.

The "problem"� of bovine tuberculosis, which would disappear overnight if everyone turned vegan, is in reality a problem of modern farming. Disease is spread as cattle are moved around the country as the market dictates, and cows are given feed that is high in calories to fatten them up but low in the nutrients needed to maintain healthy immune systems. But, rather than challenge the beef and dairy industry, UK plc decided to shoot wildlife.

The decision could lead to some 40,000 badgers being killed over the next 4 years if plans are not stopped. The only legal option left is is the European Court. But the badgers' best bet is a campaign of mass direct action to put a stop to this latest bout of biophobic madness that's about to unleashed against one of Britain's very few remaining large(ish) predators.

For updates be sure to check out Stop The Cull http://badger-killers.co.uk/action/

or email them at stopthebadgercull@gmail.com

as well as The Badger Trust http://www.badger.org.uk

For the text of the legislation see http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1992/51/contents

Previous SchNEWS articles dealing with the badger cull
Licensed To Cull
Dead Sett