Minister announces more badger culls
17 March 2000
Minister announces more badger culls
by FWi staff
THE government has announced two new areas for its badger culling trial aimed at determining whether there is a link with tuberculosis in cattle.
One area will be located on the Staffordshire/Derbyshire border. The other will be in Devon and Somerset, said junior agriculture minister Joyce Quin.
The new areas, which were announced in a House of Commons written reply, mean that eight of the planned culling trial sites have been decided upon.
The experiment has been criticised by conservationists who claim that badgers are wrongly blamed for causing TB in farm livestock.
Farmers not only blame badgers for the disease, they say the animals cause an additional 50m of damage a year by ruining buildings, fences and crops as well.
It believes the cost of damage caused by badgers is probably 20% higher than a 41.5m estimate recently published by the Central Science Laboratory.
The estimate is based on survey data collected from over 3000 farmers in 1997. But more badgers have since exacerbated the problem, believes the NFU.
Brian Jennings, chairman of the NFUs animal health and welfare committee, said that more badgers inevitably meant more damage to agricultural land.
“Talking to farmers across the country there is widespread evidence that the badger population has almost doubled in the last five years.”
Protective measures and a lack of natural predators meant badger numbers had spiralled and meant badgers were free to roam the country, he said.
And he suggested that consideration should be given to allow farmers to trap and remove badgers so the population could be better managed.
Almost 30% of respondents to a MAFF questionnaire reported that badger damage had occurred on their farm in the previous 12 months.
The most common problem was damage to fences resulting from badgers burrowing activities, said producers.
But farmers also reported severe direct damage to crops including wheat, maize vines, fruit and vegetables.
A MAFF spokeswoman said she was aware of the problems that badgers could cause and was continuing to fund research into preventative measures.