Ireland
Introduction - Although Ireland
has been killing badgers for many
years, the slaughter was
stepped up in 2002, when the
Republic of Ireland implemented a national programme of 'wildlife
control'. This cruel massacre of badgers in the Republic of Ireland using snares has failed to control bovine TB. Instead, in 2007,
incidences of the disease rose by 13%. During which time over a million snares were set every year, up to 6,000 snares a day, killing many 'non-target' species, including foxes, cats, rabbits and other animals. Snares are indiscriminate and cruel. Yet in Northern Ireland, where no badger culling is undertaken, bovine TB has
been virtually halved in three years.
A report recently published in 2007 by More and his colleagues reveals that 16 years of killing badgers in the Republic of Ireland has only reduced bovine TB by 22%. They acknowledge that this reduction could be an over-estimate. And when the data is examined in detail, the Irish government was frequently catching less than one infected badger in areas in excess of 200 square kilometres. How could such a tiny number of infected (and not necessarily infectious) badgers possibly be to blame for so much TB in cattle? Many thousands of badgers have been killed over this time; between 1995 and 2002 over 26,000 were killed.
FACT: The number
of TB reactors in
the Republic of
Ireland in 2007 was
virtually identical
to those in 2002,
when the intensive
extermination of
badgers began.
Northern Ireland - You might expect that across the
border in Northern Ireland, where
no badgers are being snared, that
bovine TB would be raging out of
control. It is true that Northern
Ireland had the worst bovine TB
incidence anywhere in Europe. As
in Great Britain, this peaked in the
wake of the foot and mouth epidemic
in 2001, when the spread of disease
within herds led to a dramatic
escalation in incidence.
But since 2002, Northern Ireland
has virtually halved the number
of TB reactors and the decline in
infected herds continues.
For more information - about badger killing in Ireland, see the Badger Trust and Badger Watch Ireland's report into badger killing in Ireland