Badgers of Mass Destruction - Revisited!

It was in July 2012 that I first wrote this article and at that time the badger cull was intending to start in the autumn of 2012. However they were problems with the count of the number of badgers present and the cull was delayed for another year. Caroline Spelman left and Owen Paterson arrived, new counts  carried out but now Owen Paterson claimed the Badgers moved the goalposts!

Badgers of Mass Destruction - July 2012.

The parallels between Tony Blair and Iraq and the Badgers and bTB are quite simply astounding with both science, intelligence and common sense being completely manipulated to suit the needs of the premier cause of “it’s all the fault of the Badger”. The government is simply pandering to the needs of farmers as they need a scapegoat, someone to blame for there poor husbandry and the flawed technology involved in cattle testing on many farms.

New scientific research published (ref 1) by the Agrifood and Biosciences Institute (NI) that co-infection with other pathogens (e.g. common liver fluke) suppresses cows' immune response to bTB so can give false negatives during bTB testing. Hence the bTB test can fail to diagnose bTB and bTB-infected animals will remain in the herd leading to further herd breakdowns which farmers, Caroline Spelman & DEFRA so readily blame on badgers.

Organisations like the National Farmers’ Union, the Countryside Alliance and the Country Land and Business Association, believe that the only people who live in the countryside who have a say on this matter are the farmers and landowners. Now with the chairman of Natural England and the DEFRA minster both farmers, it should comes as no surprise that the badger cull will proceed on the highly selected and massaged piece of science presented to the British media. Just like Tony Blair over the Iraq war the Cattle Barron's lead by the Nation Farmers Union have created a case for “Badgers For Mass Destruction”. This is where science has been filtered and the media spin put on the nasty vile badgers who cost the tax payers millions of pounds in dealing with this badger infecting cattle problem. They are all singing from the same hymn book as they know that this coalition government will deliver to the farmers and landowners what they want; wether it be the removal of vets from the slaughter process, reduction on food safety ‘red tape’ and of course the agricultural subsidies which go to about 1% of the well heeled rural population.

By allowing this cull to take place DEFRA, Caroline Spelman and this animal hostile government is in effect creating a new Blood Sport; ‘Badger Shooting’ which seems likely to increase perturbation and as a direct result the level of bTB in cattle will rise and like all Blood Sport groups they will claim that its all part of the countryside management plan.

Now early badger vaccination trials were very promising, so why has the Government cut back on vaccine research which is where the long-term solution lies, free of all the negative impacts of perturbation and public anger at the shooting of one of our protected species?

Natural England was supposed to look after and manage the relationship between who owns and farms the countryside and the wildlife and natural beauty that so many of us want to enjoy. But now Natural England is all ready to issue licences to shoot badgers to the minority rural pressure groups that have instigated this bloody cull.

- - - - - - - - - - - - THAT WAS 2012 - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Now two years later and two more Environment Minsters and we still have the brand new environment Minster seeking to continue the lie and push ahead for the Mass Destruction of badgers because farmers will not accept the science and the Environment Minster will only accept a political solution that keeps her parties countryside voters in place for the general election.

Now the NFU has been saying that this disease is killing British farming, but here we are two years down the line and the second year of the cull trial is about to start. The cull cannot be rolled out to other areas as its a complete and utter mess and classified by the Independent Expert Panel as ineffective, but will continue purely as a face saving exercise for DEFRA and the NFU. The Badgers must die so we can keep our jobs.

But Labour opposition MPs said they were "appalled" Ms Truss intended to continue a "discredited, unscientific, inhumane and ineffective" badger cull. The pilot culls in 2013 were assessed by an Independent Expert Panel (IEP) as ineffective, so in 2014 the IEP will not be used, the Environment Agency don’t want the truth to get out! 

Liz All Trussed-Up Paterson
Female Minster in Place for the General Election

When challenged in the Commons by Labour's Maria Eagle, the shadow environment secretary, to guarantee the IEP's inclusion - Ms Truss said: "The reality is that bovine TB represents a massive threat to our dairy and beef industries and we need to look at the best scientific evidence”. 

Labour's Maria Eagle: Policy Needs to be Based on Sound Science!

But just like the NFU, farmers and DEFRA, stating that science will play no part in the culling of badgers.

Now Liz Truss has been given the job because David Cameron needed to increase the number of female cabinet members in the run up to the general election and Ms Truss’s role as Environment Minster has been all sewn up by the NFU and Owen Paterson.

It really is a case of Liz Trussup Paterson the most ineffective minister in government?

Recently Melanie Squires, the SW Regional Director of the NFU, gave the following opinion in the local press: “Scientists won’t solve the bovine TB crisis in Britain.” Again the problem is all in the name: bovine TB, bovine means cattle; its cattle problem and needs to be sorted out in cattle.

According to the World Health Organisation one third of the world's human population is infected with tuberculosis which spreads when infectious people cough, sneeze or spit into the air.  Between 5% and 10% of those infected will become sick or infectious sometime during their life. 

Thirty five years ago MAFF officials (before it was called DEFRA) were asking the question, "Can badgers transmit TB to cattle?"   The answer was, "We don't know, but we we think they might be able to".

Now it is pretty obvious how infected cattle can transmit bovine TB to badgers, because badgers snuffle around for grubs and earthworms in infected cow-pats and slurry-soaked pasture and it is easy to see how intensively reared cattle, who communicate with each other by breathing up each others' noses, can spread this respiratory disease to other cattle. Since MAFF asked that question many years ago they quickly concluded that the vector of infection from badger to cattle is so small it can ignored.

So how can the problem to solved, well its all down to money, someone will have to pay for the bio-security improvements need on farms as industrial farming takes hold and its clear farmers do not want to do that; this is the real reason why a badger cull is so popular with them. In addition I can never understand the reasons for the buying and selling of cattle resulting in the very high number of cattle movements taking place; the highest in europe. Is it really necessary to have all this cattle movement taking place? Yes restock but why have cattle markets for farms under TB restrictions?

Over 13 Millions Cattle Movements per Year!

Why, Oh why are so many cattle being moved around the country when the bovine TB testing methods are weak and error prone.

Police Liaison Officers (PLOs) - the Friendly Face of the NFU!

I just wonder if many who were at the big London Badger March on 1st June 2013 and  remember the police videoing us as we marched through the streets of London? In this case the police officers were wearing orange bib Hi-Vis jackets and were attempting to capture good quality images of any Sabs they saw on the march. This was intelligence gathering in order that the government sponsored badger cull could proceed with many key activists monitored or taken out of the picture by surveillance.

Blue Bib PLOs Are They Your Friend?

Also badgerists who have been involved in organising Badger Marches have been contacted by local Police Liaison Officers (PLOs) in order to ‘help them’ keep safe during the march and they have been follow-up calls to seek and information out of these organisers.

Now a review of Operation Mansell, the policing of last year’s anti-fracking protests in Balcombe in Sussex. This was the one that the only Green MP Caroline Lucas was arrested along with her teenage son. Well a police review has confirmed that Police Liaison Officers (PLOs), usually identified by wearing blue-bibbed Hi-Vis jackets, now routinely deployed at protests and demonstrations, are now seen by senior police officers as playing a ‘pivotal role’ in gathering intelligence on protesters. In some cases the police have been accused of gathering intelligence and intimidating protesters after a film shows plainclothes police officers visiting a fracking campaigner's home and questioning her on her involvement with the anti-fracking movement and association with UK Uncut!

PLO - Weapon Out And Ready For Action!

Hertfordshire Police and Essex Police have carried out a review of Sussex police handling of the Balcombe anti-fracking protests against the company Cuadrilla and have concluded that the Police Liaison Officers (PLTs) in Sussex displayed good practices and outcomes that have had a dramatic and positive impact on the policing of protest in Sussex in line with our arguments concerning their effectiveness.

We should remember that it was Hertfordshire Police that also concluded that Avon & Somerset constabulary achieved “Best Practice” by having members of both the NFU and the private cull company present in the police HQ Control Room.

One can only conclude that both Avon & Somerset and Gloucestershire constabularies are preparing for future protests by anti-badger cull protesters but are starting to share strategy and intelligence with other forces around the country; the term “Big Brother is watching you” has become a reality!

I have not been to the Gloucestershire zone, but they are a set of Vehicle Number Plate Registration Capture cameras on the A358 as you leave Taunton and this could signal to the police that for example the Manchester Sabs are now entering the West Somerset cull zone.

Vehicle ID Cameras on the A358 Near the Cross Keys Roundabout

The government have funded the policing of the cull in support of the NFU who just want the badgers shot dead by their cull contractors using the police as a private security company.

So when we see the police out in the cull zone are we looking at a hijacked police force operating under the terms and conditions of the NFU sponsored badger cull?

Somerset Badger Police

As a Labour party member and local town councillor with a keen interest in animal welfare I chose to attend the Badger Cull zone in West Somerset and partake in the lawful and peaceful Somerset Badger Patrols that were running each night during the cull period.

We often heard in the press that Avon & Somerset constabulary were keen to allow peaceful protest during the cull period and that they would remain neutral as they policed the cull area.

Spotlight: Badger and Sue Mountstevens

However this would appear so far removed from the truth as meetings with the NFU commenced at the Bath & West show in May 2013, three months before the cull started. 
The shooting started on the 26 August 2013 and continued for a six week period ending on the 7 October. During this period they were no meeting with any anti-badger groups, but by then Avon & Somerset Constabulary had agreed to have personnel from both the NFU and the newly set-up NFU sponsored private limited company HNV Associates Ltd in the control room at police HQ. 

This cull company HNV Associates lists its nature of business as Hunting, trapping and related service activities!

One may begin to wonder about Avon & Somerset constabulary deciding to have personnel from the Countryside Alliance during any fox hunting related policing they may undertake?

Hunting Scene

They are various other grouping within the countryside that has the view that wildlife is a nuisance and the badger in particular in relation to the many pheasant shoots. Now you only have to look at the locations of the two badger cull zones in West Somerset and Gloucestershire; both these locations are home too many pheasant shooting estates and are awash with an array eager and keen of blood sports enthusiasts all to ready to participate in the cull. 

With the advent of solar farms and bio-fuel crops being developed, then in the rush for quick profits the overarching desire is to have no legally protected species of wildlife for many countryside businesses, our native wildlife simply gets in the way of countryside profits.

But perhaps the worst aspect of the Badger Cull is the way that the shooting has been allocated to private companies like HNV Associates Ltd and then to individuals. 
These companies are then able to recruit the local blood sports hobbyists; who generally tend to be lampers, shooters, gamekeepers, terrier-men and supporters of the local hunts. Many will also be members of the Countryside Alliance and so the circle of evil is complete in the countryside.

Quad Bikes racing around the countryside many unmarked and unregisters loaded with armed men whose sole purpose is to kill badgers the iconic symbol of all the Wildlife Trusts and a protected species, fully aided and supported by Avon & Somerset constabulary!

Hunting Quad Bikes in the Countryside!

Many of these Quad Bikes are classed as farm vehicles and so required no tax or insurance but often they will be seen driving along main roads and country lanes, tailgating any strange vehicles they come upon. Are the police interested? Of source not! And just to add a good pinch of salt into our wound, we as tax payers pay around £50 each toward their firearm licences!!

Just How Many Cullers Can You Get On A Quad Bike?

But to return to the Badger Cull, following the six weeks of shooting madness a week of calm reigned until the three week extension was rolled out and the shooting started again as the badgers had moved the goalposts and not enough were killed.

It was during this period that the PCC Sue Mountstevens did manage to meet with some the the anti-badger people. Better late than never some may say. But by this time serious policing issues were beginning to emerge. Some examples were cull contractors shooting over protesters heads at close range and a 999 call managed in part by NFU personnel in the police control room, where the victim of assault by cull contractors was re-classified as the suspect had a full vehicle search carried out. What this Avon & Somerset's two headed coin in play, where heads the badger gets it?

Anti badger cull protesters vehicles attacked by explosive rook scarers, just to add to the noise, distress and madness in the darkness of West Somerset's cull zone. The fact that interfering with these devices was an offence under the Explosives Act just did not register with the police as again heads the badger side gets it was the usual cry from the police. Just image how long a prison sentence any badger protester would get for letting of a rook scarer, The key would be thrown away!

Somerset Badger Patrol

I was also concerned that from speaking to a number of fellow badger patrol collogues that a high level of personnel searches, spot checks on vehicles; some for having the wrong shade of red on tail lights were carried out. Again I assume that this is the reason that the police were taking down anti badger cull protesters vehicle registration numbers in Williton, car park (where Somerset Badger Patrol met each night) and then distributed these lists at each nightly police briefing. One can only assume that this was to allow police officers on duty to stop and search and harassment Badger Patrol members. It has also been commented on that both the NFU and the HNV Associates were also collecting unfamiliar vehicle registration numbers in the cull zone.

Again it would appear that Avon and Somerset constabulary may be acting as agents, stewards or marshals of the NFU and the private limited cull company HNV Associates and it begs the question as to whether any personnel data on anti badger cull protesters and there vehicles were exchanged between the NFU and Avon & Somerset constabulary?

I and others did meet the Police and Crime Commissioner Sue Mountstevens in March 2014 at Williton car park along with fellow Somerset Badger Patrol members and we did ask about the presence of the NFU officials in the control room. She stated that that decision was made by the Chief Constable (who is currently suspended from duty) and she cannot comment on operations issues. However the police and PCC would have you believe a picture of a well-managed control room. But the police’s own report gives a very different picture. It suggests that the control room was a chaotic place, where people were shouting across each other and conflicting information was flying back and forth between badger killers and police personnel.

PCC Meets Somerset Badger Patrol

The PCC, Sue Mountstevens is now eager to met with anti badger cull protesters in a post cull attempt to appear to show an even handed approach to the badger cull policing, but this seems nothing more than PR exercise as already Avon & Somerset constabulary have now stated that having NFU personnel in there control room allowed “Best Practice” for the policing of the badger cull. The NFU personnel gave real-time information on the shooting and God knows what else for the police to act on. The classification of “Best Practice” is being quoted while numerous complaints; both internal and external to the IPPC are still outstanding simply beggars belief.

I am gravely concerned that organisations such as the Nation Farmers Union and its private owned company HNV Associates Ltd working so closely with our local police force as the Nation Farmers Union is nothing more than a Trade Association and political pressure group working for the benefit of a small unelected and unaccountable rural minority of large rich landowners.

Avon & Somerset constabulary appear to have been drawn into a political role during this badger cull. It is no secret that the “Holy Trinity” of the Countryside Lobby groups is made up of the National Farmers Union (NFU), Countryside Alliance (CA) and the Countryside Land & Business Association (CLA) an all of these groups are 100% in support of the badger cull and a massive majority in favor of a Conservative government.

If anyone did think that having a PCC would allow openness, honesty and transparency into our police force then in this case nothing could be further from the truth. Sue Mountstevens was a magistrate and was a member of the now disbanded Police Authority and a local business woman. One could say she is part of the establishment and will not rock the boat when it comes to policing controversial countryside issues.

We only need to look back to the policing involved during the miners strike some thirty years ago. Yet again another black period for British policing. Are we starting to see history repeating itself as the police, government and its allies like the NFU work together to push through an ugly agenda? Is a new Water Cannon on order for Avon & Somerset constabulary to flush these pesky Badger protesters into the Bristol Channel?

Policing the Miners Strike 1984

Are they only one side to the badger cull policing where both the senior management police team and the PCC meet and spin a united PR front. The Chief Constable who made the decision to allow the NFU and its cull contractors into his HQ control room is currently suspended on another issue. However support for this decision appears to be widespread within the police senior management team and of course the PCC has a 'get out of jail card' with the line: "I cannot possibly comment on operational matters."

Is this what you expected for those 19% who did bothered to vote for a PCC in Avon & Somerset?

To me it looks like Bank Account policing where the police support those with the most money.

The Bloody Pro-Hunting Lobby Group VoteOK Comes Clean!

Reading in the local press regarding the antics of the pro-hunt group VoteOK, I am gratified as a Labour party member that this activity is now out in the open at long last.
No more secretly trying to remove anti-hunt Lib Dem and Labour MP’s in the sleepy marginals. 

Fighting To Get Hunting Legal Again

For about a decade now this group has been out and about getting pro-hunt MPs elected in the marginal seats. They claim that they managed to swing 36 marginal seats to pro-hunt Tories at the last election.

During previous elections many marginal seats were swamped by the traditional tweed clad countryside types promoting the failures in the NHS citing too many Labour appointed managers in place, or attempting to blame the global financial crisis on Labour's mismanagement. Rural Post Offices and local shop closures down to nasty Gordon Brown? But hunting was never mentioned during these door step and leafleting campaigns. The hunters were out just to get their man elected as an MP who would vote to repeal the Hunting Act and warm to the countryside land owning elite.

All political parties have their backers and funders, but perhaps the most covert is the Holy Trinity of the countryside; namely the National Farmers Union (NFU), Country Land and Business Association (CLA) and the Countryside Alliance (CA). They draw on support from all major political parties but in David Cameron they see as their true Messiah. The Prime Minster is a Fox Hunter, Deer Stalker and game shooter, married into the land owning aristocracy. Even his chancellor George Gideon Oliver Osborne is part of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy and heir to the Osborne baronetcy.

Gone now are the Wind Farms, they interfere with hunting and confuse the pheasants and of course spoil the manor house views, but in their place are the vast Solar Farms looking like a lake of still water. Turning prime agricultural land into an industrial wasteland, while providing expensive green electricity to the masses at a healthy profit to the landowner.

Nuclear power is a Gas! As the Lady Lieutenant of Somerset has been able to lease her fields to the French EDF for a staggering £50M and at the end of the day will get the fields back!

The NFU get their Badger Culls to help the shooting estates get rid of the pesky badger to alleviate their problems with game birds and bird feeders.

Green field development will get the go-ahead when the landowners see a healthy profit.

Industrial farming will step up a gear as the sights are set on the Asian markets, barring a few teething problems with dodgy cheese hygiene issues. The countryside will then soon be full of battery cows milked three times a day, veal creates as far as the eye can see and pig pen arrays being the new crystal maze of horror.

In this scheme of things wildlife has no monetary value and the countryside belongs to the landowners who with taxpayers money will milk the life out of it for themselves.

I spy with the kids will now sound like as follows as the family travels down a typical A road; 
I spy with my little eye something beginning with ‘V’; 
>>Veal Crate Arrays;
I spy with my little eye something beginning with ‘P’; 
>>Pig Pen Arrays;
I spy with my little eye something beginning with ‘M’; 
>>Mega Cow Sheds;
I spy with my little eye something beginning with ‘B’; 
>>Bird Feeders for as far as the eye can see;
I spy with my little eye something beginning with ‘T’; 
>>Tree; sorry I cannot see one as they were all chopped down to allow the light in for the Solar Farms.

Russell Brands comments that all parties are the same is beginning to ebb away now as clear blue water separates Labour and the Tories, but no one now knows what the Liberal Democrats stand for anymore and does anyone really care after there long night of love with the Tories!

You just need to look at the environment and flooding and the way Ian Liddle-Grainger reacted to understand where his loyalty lies. The flooding was not down to cuts in budgets or the way maze crops are managed or the deforestation of uplands to allow more intensive sheep farming. The floods were down to the actions of the Labour head of the Environment Agency who failed to stop the rain from falling or was as UKIP stated, gay marriage to blame!

VoteOK, lets make hunting legal again; vote Tory, your countryside expects it!

There is now a clear choice between Labour and the Tories now.

There is an alternative!

The Destruction of our Wildlife – The Holy Trinity on a Mission!

This has been a year where the Holy Trinity of the Countryside lobby groups have joined forces to destroy as much of our wildlife as possible.

The Holy Trinity of Countryside Blood!

Countryside Alliance (CA)

Country Land and Business Association (CLA)

National Farmers Union (NFU)

These are the big three countryside lobby groups who make Trade Unions look like a Sunday School picnic.

The National Trust holds out little hope as with nearly 4 million members only about 3% bother to vote so the Blood Sports Lobby have control. With Fox, Stag hunting often taking place on trust land. Even the only estate to trial badger vaccination promotes shooting of both game and wildfowl in association with the British Association fro Shooting and Conservation (BASC). This is the Killerton Estate near Exeter. Badger culling will be down to if they can get away with it; i.e. if so few complain then to support their tenner farmers and fall in line with the 'Big Three'!

Britain has very little land that can be considered part of the public trust. A third of the countries land remains under the ownership of the aristocracy; a set that both Prime Minster David Cameron and Environment Minster Owen Paterson belong. 
In Portugal the aristocracy pride themselves with Bullfighting on horseback.

But how can anyone of sound mind think of bring hunting back in a legal state; however I do not think that the Archbishop will raise any objections and perhaps even offer to bless the hounds at some of the country’s premier meets. As was the case with the local vicar of the Quorn and Cottesmore hunt as they are going to try hunting on a Sunday. The blessing could read as follows as the hounds move off:-

“All creatures great and small”

“The Lord God did make them all”

“We the hunt will go out and kill them large”

“And kill there cubs who are so small”

“The weak and the fit and the frail"

"We will seek them out and dispatch them all”

Some will tell you its Wildlife Management!

Just so many people that own land seem to spend so much time destroying the wildlife that live on it.  We must raise our voices for theses beings that do not have a voice. A poor bear confined in a dirty cage for peoples amusement and on the other hand the firefighter who nurses a frightened kola bear.

I was in Taunton last summer when Team Badger was there to raise awareness of the coming Badger Cull. Present at that meeting was SaveMe campaigner Brian May and the Chief Executive of the RSPCA Gavin Grant.

The one single item of note from that meeting was stated by Somerset's own Gavin Grant; “If this Badger Cull goes ahead then we as a nation place no value on our wildlife. This will be the beginning of the end of wildlife preservation and protection.”

A Typical Hunt So Called Trail Hunting!

This hunt is following a trial laid along the middle of the road, just follow the white lines in the road.

I quote from the West Country based Vice Chairman of the Countryside Alliance Lord Mancroft; writing in the Hunting Magazine, Spring 2008, while Labour were still in power:-

"The reason that we shall win the battle to preserve hunting and our way of life for future generations is simple. We will outlast our enemies. We will keep our hounds and horses, keep our wonderful staff, keep our communities together, keep our farmers' and landowners' support, and we shall put together the necessary resources, both financial and otherwise, to achieve all of this, and we shall continue to do this until this Labour Government falls."

Then the Holy Trinity appear to join together to launch the VoteOK grouping to effect the political outcome at general elections!

VoteOK was set up by members of the hunting fraternity in 2001 to marshal an army of hunt supporters to flood in and coordinate the ousting of marginal sitting Labour or Lib Dem anti-hunt MPs. They have been in operation over the last three general elections and can be viewed as a pro-Tory support group. They dress in normal clothes and never mention hunting to potential voters as they know it will be a vote loser.

But to return to Badgers and why where they culled? The famer needed someone to blame for the mess British agricultural is in and so the government opted for the NFU plan of ‘Blame the Badger’.

Badgers - The Farmers Scapegoat

It should be noted that the NFU who are driving these 'culls' are an unelected quango who represent, only 18% of farmers and are predominantly City money-men and yet, they are allowed to dictate government agricultural and environmental policy!

Badgers - They Just Get in the Way of Profits

These culls serve no-one but this undemocratic, feudal minority who believe they are above the law of the land. It is now generally accepted that during the last three decades with intensive farming and poor bio-security, bovine TB has seeped out into the neighbouring wildlife. So having infecting the badger, they now want to kill them; it’s every which way but loose for the poor badgers!

The two Badger Cull tails have already taken place and now they have been hailed a success and plans to roll out more next year with gassing being considered as a cheaper option for farmers.

BUT Again: Why cull baggers?
The Holy Trinity of Countryside Blood!

Countryside Alliance (CA)

Country Land and Business Association (CLA)

National Farmers Union (NFU)

CLA - Planning made easier for Solar farms/holiday homes
          Expansion of Game Bird Shooting
NFU - No badgers, no bio-security improvements needed; 
           Cheaper to product milk without wildlife considerations
CA -   Another Countryside Blood Sport to Enjoy
          Increase in fox numbers with less badgers, so good 
          news for the return of Fox Hunting

As DEFRA has also contacted the Law Commission to review the range of animal welfare legislation so with the powerful NFU driving the agenda forward we could see the return to the days when even healthy vaccinated badgers on Wildlife Trust Nature Reserves could be invaded by the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA) staff, an executive agency working on behalf DEFRA, to remove all the badgers on Wildlife Trust reserves. This would probably be via gassing the setts.  Our wildlife has no value these days!

BREAKING NEWS:

Wildlife groups have accused the government of caving in to big farmers over planned changes to farm subsidies in England. The government proposed increasing the proportion of farm payments transferred to protecting wildlife from 9% to 15%. But it backed it down to 12% after the big landowning farmers said this was not fair.

NEXT YEAR: Who knows what the weather will bring but one thing is for certain under this coalition government our wildlife will be under even more pressure as the large industrial farms gear up for the new deals in China. Badger culls moving out across the country as this icon wild animal so badly treated in the past is once again targeted. As the world resources are fought over and people fight to survive wildlife will suffer.

Animals need a voice, ours and the others who care. Doing nothing is no longer an option as this war on wildlife continues.

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
Mahatma Gandhi.

Badger Culling Spin

The new farm minister George Eustice says the government intends to cull badgers in many more areas next year, even though the two pilot culls failed to hit their six-week target with both zones needed to be extended and with a high police cost. Mr. Eustice said we are minded to go on next year and roll the cull out more widely he stated at the NFU tenant farmers conference on Thursday the 7th of November 2013. George Eustice won his seat with a majority of 66 votes so I suspect he can kiss his political career goodbye at the next election but perhaps his parting gesture will be launching a few badger culls in Cornwall?

The New Badger Killer Farming Minster

Mr. Eustice said also that DEFRA was keen to learn the lessons from both pilot zones and would be looking carefully at the “quite different results” when both culls had completed, as the government was inclined to roll out the culls to other TB hotspot areas. One assume from pressure from the NFU who would like to see gassing and snaring employed to kill more badgers cheaply that free shooting and cage trapping and shooting currently do.

An experimental investigation was, in fact, carried out re-fox numbers increasing in direct response to badger culling, and it was found that over a period of 2 years, "mean fox density increased by over 50% in the culled areas within two years. This could please the Countryside Alliance as they will see this as a means to overturn the hunting ban as all our pro-cull ministers, including Mr Paterson and Mr Cameron, are keen fox hunters.

As DEFRA has also contacted the Law Commission to review the range of animal welfare legislation so with the NFU driving the agenda forward we could see the return to the days when even healthy vaccinated badgers on Wildlife Trust Nature Reserves could be invaded by the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA) staff, an executive agency working on behalf DEFRA, to remove badgers on Wildlife Trust reserves. This would probably be via gassing setts. This would be a return to the bad old days when the then Minster of Agriculture, Fishers and Food (MAFF) would be allowed onto any farm to gas with cyanide all the badgers setts.


It should be noted that the NFU who are driving these 'culls' are an unelected quango who represent, only 18% of farmers and are predominantly City investors and yet, they are allowed to dictate government agricultural and environmental policy!


These culls serve no-one but this undemocratic, feudal minority who believe they are above the law of the land.And now we hear that bovine TB has spread to the north east in County Durham, did the badgers use a rover ticket to get there? No of course not, badgers are banned from trains, but perhaps cattle with bovine TB from the South West were transported up!

Reading in the Farmers Guardian that North Wiltshire Tory MP and hunting fanatic James Gray stated that “One of my farmers has lost his entire herd on three separate occasions. He is reported to be driving a bus at the moment and going through terrible stress.”

Fox Hunting Mad Tory

I only hope that this new bus driving farmer is not on the school run as is he really in a fit state to be diving a bus with children onboard?

But on a more serious note the statements above and similar have been widely used to blame the badger for all the failings of the farming industry under the dictatorship of the NFU which has total control over DEFRA and Natural England.

The current bovine TB problem is down to restocking from West Country herds, which traditionally have a higher rate of bovine TB; after the Foot and Mouth outbreak in 2001.

If indeed this farmer has lost his entire herd on three separate occasions then what on earth is wrong on his farm? I have seen no research on how badgers infect cattle other than a 1971 experiment which involved placing cattle in a small concrete pen with a dozen infected badgers. This cruel experiment resulted in one calf getting infected after several months confinement and the government agency at the time; MAFF concluded at the time that this route of infection was negligible. It is now known that modern farming practices have allowed bovine TB to spill out into the wildlife and with poor testing and uncontrolled cattle movements many farms will retain the disease for many months as the cycle repeats during restocking under poor bio-security and testing measures.

Badgers will soon become rare footage on BBC Autumn and SpringWatch as the farmers percussion continues. Farmers have allowed the bovine TB problem to spread into the wildlife and now they seek to destroy there victims of their messy industry and all at the tax payers expense.