Kitchen Garden Forum

I suspect that although the Badger lovers appear to have won the day it is now only days away from farmers taking the law into their own hands and that means for certain a more painful death for Badgers.
It would appear that sensible men like Judges are not immune from the Aaaaaah factor.
I know that if there were Urban Badgers and not Urban Foxes the outcome would be different because 'townies' simply wouldn't be able to put up with them.
Lets face it they were only protected for political reasons by a government who were waining in popularity and were after the Aaaaaah vote.
They all talk of an immunization programme for Badgers but you cannot administer immunization to an affected animal so in order to do that there are going to be Badgers culled without any act of Parliament and nothing any judges sitting on their arses can do!.
In order to immunize you must trap the animals which will be tested for TB and if positive for TB will be put down.
So in the end the Badger lovers are going to lose an awful lot of badgers and as tax payers they are adding to their tax bills and everyone else's.
You are already paying farmers compensation for lost cattle now you are going to pay for immunization of Badgers and the disposal of infected culled animals. It is about time British People woke up to the those people who put animal life above Human life.
To me their attitude to the whole affair is nothing short of a scandal.
JB.

I must admit to knowing very little about badgers. I'm not a farmer and we don't appear to have many badgers in this area. However, having done some reading about them, some facts emerge. Badgers do carry bTB. Whether they spread it is not as certain, but badger numbers have increased enormously over the recent years of protected status, so they must be looking for new territories. Surprising the hedgehog population has declined dramatically over a similar period. Among the reasons given for this is that badgers are competing for the same food source, but are bigger and more powerful, and that they also simply eat the hedgehogs. Perhaps the hedgehog lovers and the badger protectors could get together and fight it out.

Unfortuneately the countryside has for years now been run by bunnyhuggers who of course know so much more about country life than country folk.

The badger has become a nuisance due to its protection.

Surely the answer is to cull badgers in a large area, this was attempted many years ago in the West Country but was sabataged by Bunnyhuggers, and see if the TB infection rate in the cattle decreases.

It is no use having so called scientific theories the only way to know if the badger is the problem is to cull the badger.

The media as usual are totaly irresponsible in their reporting on the serious situation, the other night some bony arsed banjo plucking twerp called Brian May was interviewed on Channel 4 as an expert defending the badger. Perhaps it would be more appropriate to interview some farmer who has to cull his cattle at our expense due to the TB epidemic.

Barney

A few rational questions:

Why are badgers so important? I am not in any way advocating the elimination of all badgers, but would less badgers disturb the balance of the planet?

Is all (wild)life to be protected? Life has evolved over countless millions of years on the basis of predator eats predated, survival of the fittest. Who are we to decide that some species must be nurtured?

I am, and always have been opposed to needless mistreatment of living creatures while they are alive (this does not include killing them, which is the natural termination of existence). But I am increasingly sceptical about the motives of a wide range of campaigners. Whilst researching badgers and hedgehogs today I cam across this, which to me is the most disgusting example of animal cruelty perpetrated in the name of doing good that I have ever seen




This tiny deer would not suffer being dead - I cannot see what kindness has been done by prolonging its life in this condition. Where's this from? A well-known "animal hospital".

They can still cause trouble when they are dead.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-10650160

My life revolves around the countryside and everything to do with it.
I probably will be branded as a heartless b-----d but there are certain things that have to be done to maintain a certain equilibrium.
Badger numbers are totally out of control and the decisions that are made are by people who have not got the experience of the management of the countryside as a whole they all put their word in for what they are involved with albeit Badgers, Hedgehogs or Birds. I am not against these people because it is their firm belief that what they are doing is of national importance but in the run of things they are the ones who are causing the difficulties in the first place. There is a plague of Mink in this area at present and they have had all the fish out of all the ponds in all the gardens in the local village. Every time traps are set they are set off by animal lovers and the Mink are only in this country because
Animal Liberation set about releasing them from Mink Farms where they were kept for their pelts. They are responsible for the total decline of the Water Vole which so many other species relied on for food. Rather than admit that the Mink is responsible for many evils the animal lovers turn on farmers and accuse them of indiscriminate spraying with obnoxious sprays which is simply not true in 99% of the cases.
We have Goosanders on our local river which is famous for its Trout and Grayling and the local water bailiffs shoot as many as they possibly can but they never get them all and they are back in quite large numbers every year. Then we have Cormorants that now join the Goosanders to plunder the river of its fish. They all eat almost their own body weight of fish every day. Without control there would be a lifeless river.
There are so many things to think of when you take into consideration the countryside as a whole and those who concentrate on one or two particular animals are those who are causing the biggest problem. It is time those who know the countryside are allowed control the countryside and not those sitting in their arm chairs watching something the Walt Disney has dreamed up!
JB.

It looks as though things will soon be changing in England

http://ww2.defra.gov.uk/2010/09/15/control-bovine-tb/

and Wales

http://wales.gov.uk/consultations/envir ... 90?lang=en