MPs will next week vote on whether they support the controversial cull of badgers that is permitted to start in the South West from today.
Labour, which opposes the Government-sanctioned plan, has tabled an Opposition Day debate on badger culling to control tuberculosis (TB) in cows. They will vote on Wednesday.
Some 5,000 badgers are set to be killed in "pilot" culls in west Gloucestershire and west Somerset, with up to 40 culls potentially running for 25 years.
Bovine TB is rife in the South West. There are hotspots throughout Devon and Cornwall and more than 20,000 sick animals were slaughtered in the region last year. Badgers are credited with carrying the illness.
Mary Creagh, Labour's Shadow Environment Secretary, said: "A cull would be bad for badgers, bad for farmers and bad for taxpayers. The taxpayer will pay policing costs of £4 million for just two areas, while the cull will spread bovine TB in the next two years as the shooting displaces badgers."
But Farming Minister and Liberal Democrat MP for Somerton and Frome David Heath said: "Nobody wants to kill badgers but the scientific evidence and experience of countries tells us that we will not get on top of bovine TB without addressing infection in wildlife as well as cattle."
Badger cull to bring TB under control starts today
Culling badgers as part of efforts to tackle TB in cattle can officially start today. Some 5,000 badgers are set to be killed in two pilot culls in west Gloucestershire and west Somerset. Policing costs could reach £4 million to cope with potential disruption from activists. The pilot culls aim to ensure badgers can be killed humanely, with marksmen observed by independent experts to check they are killing the protected animal swiftly. Post-mortem examinations will be carried out to assess the speed of death. The pilots will also assess whether sufficient badgers can be killed in an area to have an effect in reducing TB in cattle. One long-term study found that culling 70% of badgers in an area could reduce the disease in herds by 16%. If successful, the Government plans to roll-out culling more widely in hotspots for the disease, which is a particular problem for the South West. Bovine TB can be transmitted from badgers to livestock and between cattle. The costs of the cull will be borne by farmers. The Government, which has authorised and brought forward the cull, has said it is necessary as part of efforts to stop spiralling numbers of outbreaks of TB in dairy and beef herds. Last year 28,000 cattle were slaughtered in England. Without action, infection and costs would continue to soar, officials said. Farming Minister David Heath said: "Nobody wants to kill badgers, but the scientific evidence and experience of countries tells us that we will not get on top of bovine TB without addressing infection in wildlife as well as cattle. "A badger vaccine has practical difficulties and there is not yet any evidence on its effectiveness. If a cattle vaccine was available now, we would use it, but we know that it is around 10 years away and we cannot wait while this disease spreads across the country." Professor Ian Boyd, chief scientific adviser for the Environment Department (Defra), said the UK has lost control of the disease since the early 1980s, in the face of a number of factors including an increase in badger numbers. Protesters, led by rock star Brian May, have pledged to stop the cull, which they claim is not justified by the science. They say badgers will potential suffer and may die from infection or starvation if they are non-fatally wounded. Opponents also claim culling will disturb social structures, spreading TB and increasing infection. They want a focus on vaccines. Thousands of people wearing badger masks will join May and TV presenter and naturalist Bill Oddie on the streets of London today to protest against the cull and deliver a petition against the policy signed by 228,000 people to Downing Street.
Veterinary surgeons back pilot culls as protesters gear up for direct action
Britain's vets have thrown their support behind the pilot badger cull, which can officially begin from today.
The cull, which has been delayed to avoid the risk that badgers nursing cubs might be shot, has the full backing of the British Veterinary Association (BVA).
The organisation stressed that experts would be monitoring the cull to ensure it was efficient and humane and that the work was essential to fill "a gap in our knowledge".
Peter Jones, president of the BVA, said: "We have not taken the decision to support the pilot badger culls lightly; we have considered all of the scientific evidence, which supports the management of bovine TB in badgers in order to reduce the incidence of the disease in cattle."
The Country Land and Business Association also reiterated its support for the cull yesterday and called for the work to be allowed to go ahead without interruption from those who disagree with the policy. However the leader of the Stop the Cull group, Jay Tiernan, pledged that anti-cull activists would "pour into the pilot cull areas and attempt to halt the killing using flash lights, vuvuzelas and loud music."
A YouGov poll showed 34% opposed a cull but most had no strong feelings.
THE BADGER CULL: Q & A
Q. Why is the cull taking place?
A. The Government says culling of badgers is necessary as part of efforts to tackle spiralling rates of tuberculosis (TB) in cattle. Some 28,000 cattle were slaughtered last year, and officials warn costs to the taxpayer of dealing with the disease could reach £1 billion over the next 10 years. Each individual outbreak costs an average of £34,000, with farmers having to pay £12,000 and £22,000 being borne by the taxpayer.
Q. What is the evidence for a cull of badgers?
A. It is widely accepted that badgers spread TB to cattle, and officials estimate around half of herd infections come from badgers. A long-term study showed that proactive culling of 70% of the badgers over a 150 square kilometre area over four years could be expected to reduce the incidence of the disease in herds by 16%. The reductions were greater inside the cull area, but culling caused badgers to move around as their social structure was disrupted, spreading disease and causing a short-term increase in infection in herds just outside the cull area. The Government also points to experience from other countries, including Ireland, New Zealand and Australia, which all successfully tackled TB in livestock using culling of wildlife which spread the disease.
Q. Why is it controversial?
A. Experts, including some involved in the long-term trial, have raised a number of concerns about the policy, including that the gains will not be very large and costs could outweigh the benefits. Animal welfare and wildlife groups claim killing badgers will be inhumane and the policy is not backed up by the science. But farmers say the disease is devastating their businesses and lives and that everything possible must be done to tackle it.
Q. Where and when is the cull happening?
A. Two pilot culls will take place in areas of west Gloucestershire and west Somerset, over a six-week period that can begin from June 1. The west Gloucestershire area covers 300 square kilometres and the west Somerset area is 250 square kilometres. Culling will take place each year for four years.
Q. What will the pilot culls involve?
A. Groups of farmers have been given licences to conduct culls in the two areas under conditions which include having trained marksmen to shoot free-running badgers and ensuring they kill 70% of badgers in their areas. About 5,000 badgers will be killed across the two areas, either by shooting of free-running badgers, cage-trapping and shooting the animals or a combination of the two.
Q. How much will the cull cost?
A. The costs of carrying out the culling are being borne by the farmers. Cage trapping and shooting would cost £2,500 per square kilometre per year, and shooting free-running badgers would cost £300 per square kilometre per year. The Environment Department estimates culling will cost farmers an average of £1,000 per square kilometre per year, which for the west Gloucestershire cull would come to £1.2 million over the four-year period and in west Somerset would be £1 million. The monitoring, licensing and policing costs will be borne by the taxpayer and come to £3.2 million for each pilot area. The policing costs alone are expected to be in the region of £2 million for each pilot cull.
Q. What else is being done to tackle the problem?
A. Efforts have been made to tighten the movement and testing regimes for farms in a bid to prevent cattle to cattle transmission, and farmers are encouraged to implement "biosecurity" measures such as keeping badgers away from barns or feed. The main other avenue is vaccination against TB, both for cattle and badgers.
Q. So why isn't the focus on vaccination?
A. The Government insists it is pushing forward with vaccination, but it is a long-term strategy. A vaccination for badgers is available but has to be injected, and a oral vaccine which can be put in bait is still some way off, according to officials. Wales has opted for a vaccination strategy, and a number of landowners, including conservation groups and some farmers, are vaccinating badgers on their land. Officials estimate it will take some 10 years to get a usable vaccine for cattle that is allowed under EU trade rules.
WMN opinion: Cull pilots are a battle for welfare of the countryside
And so the day has finally come. One of the most controversial and divisive issues in the countryside today becomes reality. Licensed marksmen may now begin the cull of 70% of the badger population in two pilot sites in Somerset and Gloucestershire. Proponents say the cull will be the beginning of the battle to control and then wipe out bovine TB – the horrendous disease that this year alone has seen thousands of cattle slaughtered. Opponents argue vehemently that no badgers need to die, and that there are more humane options such as vaccination. Debate has raged for years, and while it has TB has continued to spread. Herd after herd has been ravaged by the disease. A total of 28,000 cattle were slaughtered in England last year – an increase of 7% – and 20,000 of them were in the South West. Last month we profiled the plight of dairy farmer David Bolt. He lost in excess of 200 cattle as a result of the disease. The toll was too much and he decided to sell up their farm near Tiverton and move 600 miles for a fresh – and hopefully TB-free – start. Much of the debate around the badger cull has concerned science. Both sides of the argument have found scientific evidence to back their case. But one thing is sure. Unchecked, TB could escalate into a national crisis, if it isn't one already. The Government's chief vet and the chief scientific adviser at Defra have warned that the pilot badger cull is essential if we are to regain control of the epidemic. The Government's admission that we have simply lost control of the disease was refreshingly honest, and hard evidence that the time for talking has, frankly, long gone. The pilot culls, due to get under way in the next few weeks in Somerset and Gloucestershire, will test the effectiveness of shooting "free-running" badgers in the wild. It is the method that is being tested. The question of whether reducing, dramatically, the badger population in bovine TB hotspot areas will help to bring down the incidence of the disease in both wildlife and domestic stock is decided. It will. We must all hope that the pilots will go ahead cleanly, efficiently and without the threatened direct action of some opponents. There have already been threats made to farmers and their families involved in culling. This is unfair and unacceptable. The badger cull pilots are a Government response to a rural crisis that, to most people in Britain, will probably seem a million miles away. This is no time for any sort of war in the countryside. For the fight against TB is a battle for the countryside and for the welfare of domestic stock and wildlife. In a perfect world there would be no badger cull, and there would be no mass slaughter of infected cattle. But nature, and man's relationship with it, has never been perfect.
