I AM writing to draw attention to the current predicament of badgers.
Worcestershire, like other regions of the country, has a population of badgers which are sometimes glimpsed in car lights at night. They are an important part of the countryside, are generally well-liked, and are familiar in children's literature.
Badgers have been blamed for the spread of TB in cattle. There is no doubt that some badgers are infected with TB and that TB in cattle is a serious concern. There has been an independent scientific enquiry into their control; the results were not in favour of culling. Nevertheless, the Welsh Assembly Government has decided to run a trial cull of badgers in Wales. In England Hilary Benn is shortly to make a decision whether to follow suit.
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There are other approaches to controlling cattle TB, including appropriate farming methods and the development of a vaccine.
The scientific evidence suggests that killing badgers would be ineffective and might make matters worse. It was found that killing disturbs the population so that those animals which survive move around more. This inevitably leads to the possibility of further spread of infection.
A decision to cull would be against the scientific evidence and would be difficult and very costly to implement. Like many other people I consider it important that we do not destroy one more aspect of our heritage and urge the government to decide in favour of better farming techniques and rapid development of a vaccine.
No-one knows what the effect of large-scale killing of badgers would be on wildlife in general - badgers are such key members of the foodweb.
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