007, M, an
Avenger, Prince Vultan, Judge John Deed, a Prime Minister and a
lion-hearted lady are amongst the stars that have signed up to save England’s
Badgers.
Wildwood
Trust’s Peter Smith was very honoured to be asked to add his name to the list
of 100 of the UK’s leading celebrities, Scientists and Wildlife leaders
campaigning to save the Badger.
Sir Roger
Moore, Dame Judi Dench, Joanna Lumley, Brian Blessed, Martin Shaw, Anthony Head
and Virginia McKenna OBE are among over one hundred celebrities,
scientists, naturalists, veterinarians and leading animal welfare and
conservation groups to have signed a statement calling on the Government to
stop the badger cull. In a plea for compassion, the signatories ask the
Government for its policy of killing to be abandoned and replaced with more
scientifically credible, humane and effective solutions to tackling bovine TB
(bTB).
The Joint
letter was sent to David Cameron MP, Nick Clegg MP, Owen Paterson MP and Mary
Creagh MP.
“We the
undersigned ask the government to stop the badger cull and to implement instead
the more sustainable and humane solution of vaccination, improved testing and
better bio-security”
Two pilot
culls intended to test the safety, efficacy and humaneness of killing badgers
by free shooting or cage trapping and shooting are planned to begin any day now
for a period of six weeks in undisclosed areas of West Somerset and West
Gloucestershire. If deemed successful, these plans could then be rolled
out further, throughout the West Country to Derbyshire and the Midlands, in the
mistaken belief that killing badgers will have a significant impact on the
spread of bTB. Up to ten licences will be issued each year for four
years, possibly resulting in the killing of as many as 130,000 badgers
according to Natural England.
The
signatories stand in solidarity with 263,000 members of the British public who
have so far signed the Stop the Cull petition launched by astrophysicist and
rock guitarist Dr Brian May. It is the most successful ever H.M.
Government e-petition. Brian May founded Team Badger whose member groups
include the popular Canterbury based charity Wildwood Trust, as well as many of
the leading Wildlife charities in the UK. Their joint outreach is to
approximately four million members of the public, who subscribe to these
organisations in order to protect wildlife and conserve the countryside for
future generations.
Dr Brian
May – Save Me, said:
On behalf
of supporters of the Save-Me campaign and 263,000 signatories of the anti-badger
cull petition on the Government’s website, we would like to remind the
Government that there is massive public opposition to this ill-fated cull,
which, it is becoming ever more clear, will not be of any advantage to cattle
or farmers. The Government is acting, for political motives, on a course which
cannot succeed in eradicating Bovine TB. We urge David Cameron to take
positive action to accelerate progress towards vaccination of wildlife and,
most importantly, vaccination of the source of bTB in this country, cattle,
along with full review of the skin test method of removing supposed reactive
animals from herds, and an overhaul of biosecurity and movement control
measures.
Peter
Smith, Wildwood Trust Chief Executive said:
“The badger
debate has been around for a very long time, over 40 years, but behind the
simplistic headlines that badger lovers and farmers are at loggerheads is a
much more complex and subtle story, a story full of intrigue and vested
interests competing for economic advantage.”
“Badgers
have become an easy ‘scapegoat’ for those whose lives are threatened by bovine
TB, but we must put aside short term economic needs if we are to tackle the
serious problems that have built up in British farming.”
“Bovine TB
was a dangerous disease and could infect people, mostly through drinking
milk. The introduction of pasteurisation effectively stopped the disease being
transferred to humans. Over this time strict controls on cattle movements and
herd quarantine ensured a reduction in bTB across the UK . Since the
1970s these restrictions have been relaxed and the bTB has increased due to
this lack of control.”
“Changes in
intensive farming practices have also contributed to the epidemic, as cattle
live in larger and denser groups and spend more time in large sheds and
stockades increasing the spread of bTB. The larger groups ensure that bTB that
is carried by few animals sub-clinically acting as a reservoir for the bTB
going unobserved and be allowed to flare up again. This is the process that the
farming lobby are trying to blame badgers, without credible scientific
evidence.”
In a direct
challenge to the vested interest threatening badgers and holding back the
British farming industry, Wildwood Trust has come up with a four-point plan to
eradicate TB from cows in the UK:
1.
Private insurance – reward the good and punish the bad
The present
system of subsides rewards poor practice, the solution is to make those that
cause the problem in farming through their bad and illegal farming practices.
The best way to achieve this is by the withdrawal of all government subsidy and
compensation payments. Farmers could then privately insure themselves against
the risk of herd breakdown due to TB. This free market solution would reward
good farming practices by such farmers having lower premiums. Farms with high
risk would be charged high premiums and those farmers who commit fraud by
changing ear tags and other illegal practices would invalidate their insurance.
2.
Reintroduction of stricter quarantine regulations on
cattle movement
Detailed
statistical analysis has shown that it is the movement of cattle from one farm
to another that is by far the most important factor in the spread of TB*. The
reintroduction of the strict quarantine measure abandoned in our past is key to
control of bTB in the UK.
(*M.
Gilbert, A. Mitchell, D. Bourn, J. Mawdsley, R. Clifton-Hadley & W. Wint
Nature Vol 435|26 May 2005|doi:10.1038/nature0354)
3.
Good credible science – put the funds used for badger killing into proper
scientific study of disease propagation and vaccines
The current
system of spending large amount of taxpayers’ money on trials of shooting and
gassing badgers at the expense of proper scientific study should stop. These
funds should be redirected into proper microbiological research of the disease
and its control by vaccination in cattle and badgers
4.
Introduce economic changes to taxation and land tenure to promote less
intensive agriculture.
Our present
system of taxation vastly favours tax-dodgers, land speculators, large
landowners and investment in huge cattle barns. This promotes the use of ever
more intensive agricultural systems, increasing disease and animal suffering.
By shifting
our tax base off wages and trade, and putting taxation on land values and
natural resources we will promote farming jobs and animal welfare, making it
economically competitive with farming practices that cause
environmental destruction and lie behind poor animal welfare.
Badgers are
just one of the huge range of British animals that can be seen at the Wildwood
Discovery Park. For more information visit the website at www.wildwoodtrust.org or telephone 01227 712111.
Wildwood is
an ideal day out for all the family where you can come 'nose to nose' with
British Wildlife. Wildwood offers its members and visitors a truly
inspirational way to learn about the natural history of Britain by actually
seeing the wildlife that once lived here, like the wolf, beaver, red squirrel,
wild boar and many more.
Wildwood is
situated close to Canterbury, just off the A291 between Herne Bay and
Canterbury. For more information visit our website at www.wildwoodtrust.org or telephone 01227 712111
**********************************************
Ends
Peter Smith
is available for interview, and badgers the of wildwood can be
filmed their natural woodland enclosure. We can supply high quality Photos
and Video of badgers
For more
information Contact Fiona Paterson or Peter Smith
Tel:
01227 712111
Key facts
of bTB
1.
bTB is passed from animal to animal by aerosol in the form of close, mouth to
mouth, transmission
2.
bTB is a ‘progressive’ disease not a black and white issue – the idea of ‘skin
reactors’, the current method of detection is very flawed
3. Cattle
infect badgers but probably not the other way round (not one shred of real
evidence exists for badger to cattle transmission, only inference conjecture)
4.
bTB is dormant for many years (if not decades in some animals) and this is the
real ‘reservoir’ of infection –there is no real evidence of wild animal to
cattle transmission. The best data available, from the studies done in Belgium,
show that wild animal transmission has no statistical influence on the
epidemiology
5.
The most probable culprit of the rise in bTB is when strict quarantine laws
where relaxed 40 years ago, the bTB we see today is just the epidemiological
statistical results of that relaxation, magnified by larger herd sizes
(increases the chance a ‘dormant carrier’ infecting a herd) and greater
densities in cattle sheds.
6.
Many cattle diseases, not just bTB, have increased over that time, pointing the
finger to industry practices and animal husbandry issues
7.
Stress and ‘unnatural’ diet may (and I stress may as no real evidence) play a
role in increasing the progression and expression of bTB in cattle
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