Marksmen to cull Sussex badgers (From The Argus)
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Marksmen to cull Sussex badgers
12:20pm Friday 22nd July 2011 in News By James Wallin
Marksmen to cull Sussex badgers
HUNDREDS of badgers across Sussex are set to be shot dead to try to stop cattle catching disease.
Farmers have been told by the Government they will be able to hire marksmen to eliminate the animals.
Wildlife charities last night said the Government would have blood on its hands if it allowed the cull to halt the spread of bovine tuberculosis (TB).
They say the decision flies in the face of scientific evidence.
But supporters say the disease, which is spreading across the county, is already causing animals pain, as well as risking farmers’ livelihoods and food supplies.
Environment secretary Caroline Spelman said this week pilots could be introduced next spring with wider implementation in 2013.
The Government hopes to reduce the badger population by 70% in TB hotspots such as Sussex.
Jane Wild, the founder of Badger Trust West Sussex, said: “This will lead to bloodshed. It will not be done in a humane and swift way at all. It will lead to hordes of yobs roaming the countryside killing for pleasure.
“It’s like we’ve stepped back in time. A lot of people thought these barbaric practices were over.
“The Conservatives are underestimating how much people love badgers. We see them on posters, leaflets, stamps – they are our heritage.”
Roger Musselle, who runs Brighton-based Roger’s Wildlife Rescue, said: “Like everyone I’m horrified they are considering killing our wildlife.
“It’s not just badgers that carry TB – deers are also carriers but no one is suggesting they’re culled.”
William Goodwin, the vice chairman of the South of England Agricultural Society, said the TB problem was spreading across Sussex, having been sparked in hotspots such as Lewes.
Mr Goodwin, who runs a farm in Ardingly, near Haywards Heath, said: “What many opponents don’t appreciate is this about stopping a great deal of animal suffering that is going on at the moment.
“It also has massive implications for food production because there is increasing demand but if cattle are having to be slaughtered needlessly then that demand cannot be met.”
The last badger census in Sussex was carried out in 1998 but current numbers are estimated to be in the hundreds.
Last year there were eight confirmed cases of TB in cattle across Sussex.
Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas, who is honorary vice-president of the RSPCA, said the proposed cull showed “a shocking disregard for animal welfare”.
She said a nine year randomised cull trial, costing £50 million and destroying 10,000 badgers, had concluded “badger culling can make no meaningful contribution to cattle TB control in Britain”.
And Conservative Hove MP Mike Weatherley said: “I am not at all inclined to support a badger cull.
Comments(38)
Royal_Recruit
says...
12:37pm Fri 22 Jul 11
“It’s not just badgers that carry TB – deers are also carriers but no one is suggesting they’re culled.”
Ummm Deer are culled
So we're happy for cows etc to live in pain and having to be slaughtered but not badgers. Right
gwhite1506
says...
12:46pm Fri 22 Jul 11
joebie sussex
says...
12:53pm Fri 22 Jul 11
Hooitness
says...
1:04pm Fri 22 Jul 11
I will never understand the morons on here that condemn the controlled culling of animals. Animal husbandry is vital to maintain livestock, and animal life in this country.
How do you think the your evening meal gets to you (and im not talking about the mal-nourished lentil eating types)?
Brighton_Belle
says...
1:08pm Fri 22 Jul 11
gwhite1506 wrote:But where would we get our beef from? Wouldn't it be worse for the environment to import beef than to have our own 'home grown'?
time to get get rid of the cattle, they are the ones damaging the environment with all their methane etc.
I'm not overjoyed at the thought of a wildlife cull, if I'm quite honest. But equally, if there is a good and justifiable reason for it and it is carried out in a humane responsible way, then so be it.
It's a shame it can't be managed another way.
I think the 'hoardes of yobs' is a bit of an overstatement - well, I hope it is! I don't imagine the badgers would be staying around large groups of people very long, and if those people are inexperienced they might soon find out that badgers aren't as cute and fluffy as they look...
Sussex Boy
says...
1:21pm Fri 22 Jul 11
.org.uk/page/s/badge
r-poll
There are alternatives to the badger cull, such as the use of contraceptives and medicines to prevent the spread of disease. I encourage a polite, reasoned and respectful approach to this debate. I discourage abusive behaviour from all sides. Be respectful when you email your MP. Don't give them a reason not to respond. If you provide others with facts to support your argument, then they will have a hard time opposing you. For some, your facts will be too much and they will become aggressive and abusive, as some people have done so here. Please bear that in mind.
Captain Smollett
says...
1:23pm Fri 22 Jul 11
Surely not!
says...
1:27pm Fri 22 Jul 11
Captain Smollett wrote:now why did the word 'pompous'pop into my head?
So, I remember this being brought up a over a week ago.. (Not bad Argus!) And the question was "What has Norman Baker got to say about it?" It is, after all, happening FIRST and Most Radically in his Constituency...
Answers then came there none... except some abuse from a muppet, so lets ask again shall we?"
Also..
And Conservative Hove MP Mike Weatherley said: “I am not at all inclined to support a badger cull"
But not inclined to vote against it eh?
As for Lucas.. Your Vote really counted there people.
Captain Smollett
says...
1:32pm Fri 22 Jul 11
Surely not! wrote:Having read some of your previous posts, your guess is as good as mine on that one, or any of the other words that 'pop' into it.
Captain Smollett wrote:now why did the word 'pompous'pop into my head?
So, I remember this being brought up a over a week ago.. (Not bad Argus!) And the question was "What has Norman Baker got to say about it?" It is, after all, happening FIRST and Most Radically in his Constituency...
Answers then came there none... except some abuse from a muppet, so lets ask again shall we?"
Also..
And Conservative Hove MP Mike Weatherley said: “I am not at all inclined to support a badger cull"
But not inclined to vote against it eh?
As for Lucas.. Your Vote really counted there people.
anonymous coward
says...
1:40pm Fri 22 Jul 11
Well done to the farmers, government and marksmen involved in this irrational, inhumane exercise.
Royal_Recruit
says...
2:09pm Fri 22 Jul 11
Irational? No, there is a problem, this is a solution. A marksman with a .22 rifle will do a very good job.
Spanners
says...
2:19pm Fri 22 Jul 11
Captain Smollett
says...
3:48pm Fri 22 Jul 11
Captain Smollett
says...
3:50pm Fri 22 Jul 11
PLEASE! Don't write me no Leica
puddings3112
says...
4:13pm Fri 22 Jul 11
2. The government are supporting this promise of a cull because both the tories and the libdems have the majority of rural constituencies - both have turned up at NFU meetings promising the cull in exchange for votes.
3. A number of farmers have been fined for swapping cattle i.d. numbers sending spent cattle to slaughter, getting the cash and keeping the TB infected cow.
4. the rise in TB has come about since the previous tory and labour regimes via MAFF closed local abattoirs and encouraging mass transportation of cattle around the country (few cattle are born, raised and slaughtered on one farm now)
5. The tories have said previously that the granting of special culling licenses was part of big society - in line with all other big society initiatives, one hopes that farmers have to choose - cull license or TB compensation but I think we all know that to keep the votes they are likely to get both
calgoblin
says...
4:20pm Fri 22 Jul 11
papa_melons
says...
5:06pm Fri 22 Jul 11
billybox
says...
5:16pm Fri 22 Jul 11
They are deseases. The Spanish, by definition must be vermin and how do you deal with vermin that are are 'nuisance' to you?
The same fate I believe happened to the Aborigines, American Indians, Africans etc.
Seems like all of Europe should be dispatched by the logic of the Tory Government.
papa_melons
says...
5:34pm Fri 22 Jul 11
billybox wrote:the easiest way to avoid cross-contamination from this mullet-haired breed is not to go within 50 yards of a bus stop anywhere along a route that serves a language school. In particular, during the high season, Palmeira square is a no go area, with hordes of these horrible creatures cluttering up the pavement for 20 metres either side...
On the TV programme QI recently, it was stated that the Incas were completely decimated by syphilis, chicken pox, common cold etc. All brought over by the Spanish.
They are deseases. The Spanish, by definition must be vermin and how do you deal with vermin that are are 'nuisance' to you?
The same fate I believe happened to the Aborigines, American Indians, Africans etc.
Seems like all of Europe should be dispatched by the logic of the Tory Government.
twosugars
says...
7:07pm Fri 22 Jul 11
Sussex Boy wrote:just had a mental image of a badger going into a chemist's shop to buy a pack of Durex! i dont agree with a cull of badgers unless it is supported by proper scientific evidence that such a cull is needed. Meanwhile, when is the government going to ban the wholesale and widespread cruelty to fish where they are dragged out of their natural environment by sharp hooks after fighting for freedom for a while, held up gasping in the air so that the person catching it can take a photo to gloat over and show to all his / her friends, then thrown back in the lake so some other angler can have a go. Hunting for food is one thing but inflicting cruelty on fish for fun is not on!
Please sign the 38 Degrees petition to stop the badger cull: http://www.38degrees .org.uk/page/s/badge r-poll There are alternatives to the badger cull, such as the use of contraceptives and medicines to prevent the spread of disease. I encourage a polite, reasoned and respectful approach to this debate. I discourage abusive behaviour from all sides. Be respectful when you email your MP. Don't give them a reason not to respond. If you provide others with facts to support your argument, then they will have a hard time opposing you. For some, your facts will be too much and they will become aggressive and abusive, as some people have done so here. Please bear that in mind.
Tammy Flugh
says...
7:42pm Fri 22 Jul 11
That's £5000 per badger! Where do I sign up?
Perseus
says...
8:41pm Fri 22 Jul 11
Animalfan
says...
9:15pm Fri 22 Jul 11
Sussex Boy
says...
2:46am Sat 23 Jul 11
"just had a mental image of a badger going into a chemist's shop to buy a pack of Durex! i dont agree with a cull of badgers unless it is supported by proper scientific evidence that such a cull is needed."
Two things, I think your mental image is a straw man, i.e. a deliberately weakened version of my argument easily knocked down. Animal contraceptives tend to be of the chemical variety, added to food laid out. Sometimes, the animal is stunned and sedated, before a person administers the contraceptive.
Secondly, my position is that a cull is not acceptable under any circumstances.
Juleyanne
says...
10:22am Sat 23 Jul 11
constant subsidies for anything and everything including fallow land, compensations for outbreaks of diseases you name it; never ever it appears do the farmers blame themselves even a bit for the problems now being faced and seem totally incapable or unwilling to accept their obvious part in where we find ourselves now! Once yet another problem arises they blame to goat yes i nean the SCAPEGOAT in this case its the poor badger who takes the bullet and the blame! Badgers for thousands of years stayed happily in their woodland/hedgerow territories as they are general shy creatures but thanks to our not so dear farmers in a desperate bid to survive they have been uprooted. There is no conclusive proof that badgers are wholly responsible for TB transmission, we need much more investigation and await innoculations according to a previous Countryfile program they are in the pipeline. Farmers backed by their nodding dog Defra and our government are knee jerk reacting to a problem that they have helped create and it will be a death penalty tragedy if we stand back and let our beautiful iconic badgers pay the price!
auby
says...
10:47am Sat 23 Jul 11
nocando
says...
11:07am Sat 23 Jul 11
Baldseagull
says...
12:18pm Sat 23 Jul 11
From the piece - "The last badger census in Sussex was carried out in 1998 but current numbers are estimated to be in the hundreds."
I bet that estimate comes from a Badger conservation group, the numbers I've seen killed on the roads this year must be in the hundreds.
Shooting would be the most humane way to carry out a cull, but it is a short term solution to TB spread, the extermination of all badgers is neither possible or desireable so other measures need to be found in the long term.
Conservationists could find a benefit from a cull though, in that the severley declining hedgehog population may benefit from some control of Badgers.
Cap'n Flint
says...
3:48pm Sat 23 Jul 11
Captain Smollett wrote:Excellent. Lets give it a go, 10,000 does not seem that many and we can look at it again afterwards. Personally, I believe that firearms laws should be relaxed a little... It would deter burglars, I have to pretend to be cleaning my shotgun in the small hours to cover myself! I have all the cleaning stuff out, and have told as many as I can think of that this is my practice of a night, that way, I have a defence when i shoot the Pikey gits
I was brought up to believe you should only shoot animals with a Camera so I bought a 12 Bore Pentax.
PLEASE! Don't write me no Leica
eastofbrighton
says...
6:41pm Sat 23 Jul 11
And cow's well, I do not drink my mother's breast milk anymore, the thought of that is disgusting, so why anyone would want to drink a cow's is beyond me. Enslaving and slaughtering creatures is wrong, especially when we do not need to.
Tories, so much to answer for.
Leon
says...
8:11pm Sat 23 Jul 11
Juleyanne
says...
8:41am Sun 24 Jul 11
although there may seem a few about in the south east, countrywide their numbers are declining and they are subsequently protected by law, I suggest you move Leon to some baron silent dull place inland where
the only sound you will hear is the droaning moaning repetitive sound of your own voice!
peppermint paddy65
says...
9:35am Mon 25 Jul 11
folkchick
says...
12:19am Tue 26 Jul 11
sharpley
says...
2:01pm Tue 26 Jul 11
mazgee
says...
11:00pm Tue 26 Jul 11
williethemailboy
says...
7:02am Thu 28 Jul 11
Captain Smollett says...
12:29pm Fri 22 Jul 11
Answers then came there none... except some abuse from a muppet, so lets ask again shall we?"
Also..
And Conservative Hove MP Mike Weatherley said: “I am not at all inclined to support a badger cull"
But not inclined to vote against it eh?
As for Lucas.. Your Vote really counted there people.