Sir – On June 1, badgers out on their nightly forage for food in areas of the West Country will be shot. Many of them will not be killed outright but be badly injured and go and crawl off to die a slow and painful death.
How can this be happening to one of the best loved wild animals in the country? It is because the Coalition Government are not listening to 70 per cent of people in this country who said that they did not support a cull in the Government’s online consultation.
They are not listening to the eminent scientists who say that this uncontrolled slaughter is not based on science and could make things worse.
They are listening instead to the vested interests of the NFU who, for years, have been perpetuating the myth that if we kill badgers we will eradicate bTB in this country. The proposed wholescale killing of the badger, a protected species, is defended by the speculative assertion that bTB might be reduced marginally over nine years!
Badgers are not the source of the problem but the scapegoat. The real answer is the vaccination of cattle and overcoming the legal and treaty impediments standing in the way of this.
Wales has opted for badger vaccination and has imposed a vigorous cattle testing regime and tighter cattle controls. England could do the same and the vaccination of badgers has already started in some areas in this county.
Julia Hammett, Oxfordshire Badger Group
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