Persecution
Introduction - Badgers are being scapegoated by farmers and farming organisations, whose own intensive production systems are the direct and main cause of increasing levels of many diseases in cattle, including bovine TB. There is no plausible evidence to suggest that badgers are transmitting bovine TB to cattle. The reverse is probably the case.
The persistent focus on badgers distracts from the serious health problems faced by intensively managed cattle in Britain. Many other diseases, such as pneumonia, E. coli, coccidiosis (a fatal diarrhoea), salmonella and mastitis, are also increasing in British cattle herds.
Bovine TB is caused by intensive farming methods, NOT badgers! See the Farming Impact pages for more information on this.
Background of persecution - In 1973 a dead badger was found on a farm in Gloucestershire that had recently suffered an outbreak of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) within its cattle herd. Upon post-mortem examination the badger revealed a large number of lesions throughout its body, which tested positive for bTB. MAFF (now DEFRA) first started to kill badgers (using cyanide gas) as a means of 'controlling' Bovine TB (bTB) in 1975. But since 1982 until 2005 badgers had been cage-trapped in Britain where they remained until DEFRA operatives return to shoot them.
In Ireland they are caught in cruel snares.
Since then the badger has become a farming and government scapegoat for what is a farming/bovine disease. Over 30,000 badgers were killed in unfruitful, pointless 'experiments' up to 1995. From 1998 to 2005 around 11,000 badgers were trapped and killed by DEFRA operatives in the Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT), however, this figure does not take into consideration the thousands of dependent badger cubs who would have been orphaned by the culling and died a lingering death underground. It also does not take into account the increased number of badgers killed illegally by farmers during this time, using the existence of the Government trial as an excuse to take matters into their own hands.
DEFRA made little or no effort to record the illegal killing of badgers - in RBCT areas or elsewhere. This is despite evidence - from the police and others that farmers are killing badgers in TB areas. In addition, Professor Bourne has expressed his concern to badger groups that the illegal killing is "sinister".
Farmers insist that badgers transmit the disease to cattle, and yet not even farmer-friendly DEFRA has produced any convincing evidence. During the past 33 years, DEFRA (and formerly MAFF) has killed more than 40,000 badgers in a failed effort to halt bovine TB outbreaks. In fact, TB in cattle has been increasing since 1986, including in areas where badgers have been eliminated, or where they have been shown to be free of the disease.
The Independent Scientific Group (ISG) overseeing the Krebs Experiment has been encouraging the Government to implement a wider programme of research. But the obsessive focus on badgers by DEFRA and the farming community persists. Over 80% of the TB research budget involves badger related work, with much of this (£35m) being spent on the Krebs Experiment, which tried to eradicate badgers across 2,000 sq. km of the British countryside.
The vast majority of badgers were not infected (DEFRA's own figures show that 80% of 21,545 badgers killed and examined via post mortem in previous TB badger 'removals' were not infected with TB). The Badger Trust also believes this to be so. It also estimates that more than half of all badger cubs in cull areas will starve to death. This is because the 'close season' - the period in the programme during which the killing of lactating sows will be halted - runs only from February to April. Cubs, however, are born as early as December, and are dependent on their mothers for food for several months.
Even Professor John Bourne, who co-ordinated the killing 'experiment', has admitted that cattle to cattle infection has been underplayed. "I think it is true to say the badger has been made a scapegoat," he admitted to the BBC, in May 1999.
It is known that the TB test used on cattle is not completely accurate, some cattle with TB are not detected by the test and so escape slaughter. Also bovine TB incidences have increased since the 1980's as there is less frequent testing and a vast increase in movement of cattle across the UK. These animals can then transmit the disease to other cattle. It is argued that so long as there is this hidden reservoir of disease in the soil and cattle population, bovine TB can never be wiped out.
Rather than badgers being the source of bovine TB, the reservoir for the disease is much more likely to be the UK's commercial cattle.
The badger slaughter policy has failed miserably. Bovine TB in cattle has spread to South Wales, Cumbria, Scotland and the Midlands (where next?). Often, bTB jumps miles to unaffected areas. Badgers do not travel these great distances. But cattle do, especially since B.S.E. and the latest farming disease outbreak of Foot and Mouth in 2001.
One example of the scapegoating that goes on, is that farmers and farming unions have been blaming badgers for the decline in skylarks for years. But in a briefing paper to the Government TB Forum in May 2002, Dr Chris Cheeseman from DEFRA's Ecological Research Unit, confirmed that cattle are responsible for 60% of nest destructions. In contrast, badgers and foxes are responsible for just 15% of destructions. Most significantly, Dr Cheeseman confirmed that intensive grazing regimes increase the likelihood of nest destruction. Dr Cheeseman also rebuked farming unions for claiming that badger numbers are “exploding”. He also confirmed that no evidence has been found to link an increase in the badger population to the increase in bovine TB in cattle.Badgers are just one of the many species of wildlife under persecution from farmers and other industries.
Animal Aid has produced a detailed report on the culling of various species of British Wildlife. "With Extreme Prejudice" can be downloaded free from their website.