Kitchen Garden Forum

Not convinced re badgers and TB; the evidence is unconvincing.

Something stole a third of our apple crop; there were nine apples on 4 new dwarf trees... a trio drooping near the ground vanished and there was a new pathway through the long grass/

Slug traps got drunk.. and now I find scat ..

In a previous house, there was a sett too near the house and the cats and badgers used to scream and attack; lost one cat sadly.

Aren't they trying out an innoculation programme in some parts of the country. Wouldn't it be as easy as shooting them?

glallotments wrote:Aren't they trying out an innoculation programme in some parts of the country. Wouldn't it be as easy as shooting them?

First catch your badger, then handle it - they are vicious creatures I am told. Shooting eliminates that.

Not vicious really.

Much like a respectable maiden aunt, they don't like being manhandled.
Unlike a maiden aunt their only defence is their teeth.

alan refail wrote:

glallotments wrote:Aren't they trying out an innoculation programme in some parts of the country. Wouldn't it be as easy as shooting them?

First catch your badger, then handle it - they are vicious creatures I am told. Shooting eliminates that.

The programme that I saw about inoculation didn't involve manhandling. The badgers were caught in traps (which is one way they are suggesting culling may be carried out). then they inoculated them whilst in the trap. They dealt with them in the same way as they would a wild animal in say Africa.

Another method involved leaving food in which the substance was mixed and a third involved shooting in the same way as it would if they were actually killing the badgers. Same routine.

They started some kind of cull here a while back; if someone did not want that done on their land they had to file forms saying so. They netted them and there the poor badgers had to stay until a forester got round to shooting them.

At that stage I stopped reading about it...Ieland hasd an applling animal cruelty record.