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Pity the man who has to give the badger execution order

From The Sunday TimesApril 13, 2008
http://tinyurl.com/3jdnbr
Pity the man who has to give the badger execution order
On one side the nation’s farmers; on the other, Jilly Cooper and David
Attenborough. As Roland White finds, badger culling is not black and
white

If there is a badger version of Michael Winner, he could do worse than
make a reservation at Jilly Cooper’s kitchen window. Ordinary badgers
get by on a diet of earthworms and grubs, but the Manoir aux Quat’
Saisons of the badger world offers diners an extensive menu that
includes left-over shepherd’s pie, fish pie, rice and chicken - with
only a labrador dog to compete for the spoils.

“We have about 30 setts at the top of our wood,� the novelist says at
her home in the Cotswolds. “The badgers just come up to the window and
they seem perfectly harmless and sweet.�

Harmless and sweet they may be, but Cooper now fears for the future of
her nightly visitors. Suddenly the fate of entire badger populations
hangs in the balance.

The trouble can be traced back to a single animal, infected with
bovine tuberculosis and found dead on a Gloucestershire farm in 1971.
It was this discovery that prompted scientists to wonder whether
badgers might be spreading TB to cattle.

Not that bovine TB was much of a problem back then. Yet now it’s
spreading at an alarming rate: more than 28,000 cattle were
slaughtered last year after testing positive for the disease, and
figures show that cases are doubling every 4½ years.

In a desperate attempt to stop the disease spreading, the Welsh
assembly announced plans last week for a cull of badgers. Full details
have yet to be revealed but Hilary Benn, the environment secretary, is
considering a similar move in the worst-affected areas of England –
the southwest, Staffordshire and Derbyshire.

Whatever decision he makes, it will be furiously contested. Pitchforks
are already being sharpened in the countryside for what could be the
most bitter and damaging political dispute since fox-hunting.

On one side are most farmers. They are supported by the National
Farmers’ Union, the Welsh assembly’s chief vet and Sir David King,
former chief scientist in Whitehall. Lining up against them, and ready
to fight to the last sett, are the Badger Trust, the RSPCA and
celebrity animal lovers including Cooper, Alan Titchmarsh and Sir
David Attenborough. Both sides claim the support of science.

Some say badgers are being unfairly blamed. “Of 11,000 badgers killed
in a scientific trial, only 1,515 had TB,� Cooper says. “The cattle
are giving it to the badgers – that’s what everybody believes.�

At least three inquiries and reviews have examined the issue over the
past 12 years. Each point they have raised seems to be hotly
contested. Even the experts cannot agree.

Professor John Bourne led the most extensive inquiry, the Independent
Scientific Group on Cattle TB. His team conducted culling trials over
a decade, and their verdict was damning. “We conclude that
badger-culling cannot meaningfully contribute to the future control of
cattle TB in Britain,� said the ISG report, published last year. In
fact, Bourne says, small-scale culls would probably make the problem
worse.

Shortly after that report was published, King reviewed the research
and came to a different conclusion. He said a cull would be successful
if carried out over a large area (more than 115 square miles) with
“hard� boundaries – the sea or a large river, for example
– and by
competent officials.

For Stephen James, a farmer, a cull cannot come soon enough. He’s been
fighting TB on his farm near Clynderwen, Carmarthenshire, on and off
for nearly 15 years. To fight the latest bout of infection,
restrictions on cattle movements have been in force at the farm for
the past 17 months.

“We tested about 400 animals in March and we’ve got just one
that’s
tested positive,� he says. “It’s very frustrating, but you learn
to
live with these things.� He lost 37 cattle last year, and the
restrictions mean he must feed and house 110 beef cattle he would
normally have sold as calves.

By trapping badgers in cages before humanely destroying them the ISG
trials were using the wrong culling method, James believes. “If a wild
animal is trapped, it’s going to be disturbed,� he says.

“Its colleagues are going to realise and move on.

And the animals that moved on were carrying the disease.�

He suggests a legal form of snaring the animals and then shooting
them, as in Ireland, where the culling was successful (though
opponents say that British conditions are very different).

Some badger groups blame intensive farming methods for the spread of
the disease but James dismisses this idea. “You can speak to plenty of
organic farmers who have the same trouble,� he says.

As Benn stares forlornly at his in-tray and perhaps hopes for a quick
cabinet reshuffle, here is an unhappy thought. “Whoever makes the
decision about badger culling hasn’t got a great future in politics,
basically,� James says. “If you’re the one that suggests culling
wildlife, the chances of your getting further in the political field
might be challenged.�

As if that weren’t bad enough, some scientists believe that a
successful cull of badgers will probably bring about a sharp rise in
fox numbers. And that might just reopen the bitter debate over
hunting.

Good luck, minister.