Badger culls: The cost of cruelty for Irish Citizens: €70 million to be exact

Irish Wildlife Trust

Are you aware that 115,000 badgers have been killed with tax payers money since 1984 in an effort to eradicate Bovine TB in Ireland. €70 million has been allocated to the disease eradication programme this year alone. Snares are set in Ireland nightly by 75 paid workers. There can be up to 6000 snares in place at any given time. This madness continues even though scientific evidence has shown that this is an ineffective method of controlling BovineTB and can even lead to the spread of it. Badgers die horrible deaths over extended periods struggling in these snares (referred to as 'stopped body restraints' by the Government). Snares are indiscrimate and many of the badgers killed are healthy animals while their orphaned young starve to death underground.

Is this to continue unchecked? Our money is being wasted on this barbarism with no benefit to farmers, economy or image.

Uriel.

Irish Wildlife Trust wrote: »

Are you aware that 115,000 badgers have been killed with tax payers money since 1984 in an effort to eradicate Bovine TB in Ireland. €70 million has been allocated to the disease eradication programme this year alone. Snares are set in Ireland nightly by 75 paid workers. There can be up to 6000 snares in place at any given time. This madness continues even though scientific evidence has shown that this is an ineffective method of controlling BovineTB and can even lead to the spread of it. Badgers die horrible deaths over extended periods struggling in these snares (referred to as 'stopped body restraints' by the Government). Snares are indiscrimate and many of the badgers killed are healthy animals while their orphaned young starve to death underground.

Is this to continue unchecked? Our money is being wasted on this barbarism with no benefit to farmers, economy or image.

Are you a genuine representative of the Irish Wildlife Trust???

Lemlin

Irish Wildlife Trust wrote: »

Are you aware that 115,000 badgers have been killed with tax payers money since 1984 in an effort to eradicate Bovine TB in Ireland. €70 million has been allocated to the disease eradication programme this year alone. Snares are set in Ireland nightly by 75 paid workers. There can be up to 6000 snares in place at any given time. This madness continues even though scientific evidence has shown that this is an ineffective method of controlling BovineTB and can even lead to the spread of it. Badgers die horrible deaths over extended periods struggling in these snares (referred to as 'stopped body restraints' by the Government). Snares are indiscrimate and many of the badgers killed are healthy animals while their orphaned young starve to death underground.

Is this to continue unchecked? Our money is being wasted on this barbarism with no benefit to farmers, economy or image.

I don't think the badgers do die horrible deaths over extended periods in snares. AFAIK they are shot in the head by the person who set the snare when found and sent for testing in Dublin.

I also don't believe that people are paid specifically to do this. A number of farmers in my area used to do it themselves. They'd set the snares on or near their land and check them each day. They may have received a small gratuity but I'd emphasise small.

Can you post links to some of the scientific evidence which shows it's an ineffective way of controlling TB? Have you also any evidence re the 70 million funding? That sounds very high.

super_furry

Indeed. Where's the scientific evidence?

LostCorkGuy

www.youtube.com/watch?&gl=US&hl=en-GB&client=mv-google&v=EIyixC9NsLI&nomobile=1

They only want mushrooms

Lemlin

LostCorkGuy wrote: »

www.youtube.com/watch?&gl=US&hl=en-GB&client=mv-google&v=EIyixC9NsLI&nomobile=1

They only want mushrooms

I can't watch a video here. Any articles?

Irish Wildlife Trust

I am the conservation officer for the Dublin branch of the Irish Wildlife Trust. There are branches in nearly every county. We are running a campaign to stop culling badgers in Ireland and want to raise awareness about this issue.
There have been a number of studies that have shown culling to be ineffective in controlling BovineTB, even increasing it in most cases. £50million was spent on a 10 year study in the Uk and these were its findings and recommendations.

See attached
http://archive.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/farmanimal/diseases/atoz/tb/isg/report/final_report.pdf

quote from it below.

The ISG’s work – most of which has already been published in peer-reviewed scientific
journals – has reached two key conclusions. First, while badgers are clearly a source of
cattle TB, careful evaluation of our own and others’ data indicates that badger culling can
make no meaningful contribution to cattle TB control in Britain. Indeed, some policies under
consideration are likely to make matters worse rather than better. Second, weaknesses in
cattle testing regimes mean that cattle themselves contribute significantly to the persistence
and spread of disease in all areas where TB occurs, and in some parts of Britain are likely
to be the main source of infection. Scientific findings indicate that the rising incidence of
disease can be reversed, and geographical spread contained, by the rigid application of

cattle-based control measures alone.

Frustratingly it seems like the UK government (Wales and NI too) are about to bow to pressure from farmers organisations, ignore the findings and return to culling badgers. Please note we are very pro-farmer and feel that farmers are also victims of this wasteful exercise.

While awaiting a decision TB levels have dropped by 50% in NI and 37% in UK. Also, consider this. Scotland and most of mainland europe are officially TB free, achieved without culling badgers.

Please sign the petition on www.iwt.ie and spread the word

Dr Galen

OP

Please contact one of community managers to gain verified access on the site before purporting to be representing an organisation such as the IWT.

Cheers

DrG