Badger Cull

[Neil]

Could people show mercy and help.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/38257

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibogahMnt6A[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OghDSaD1nAI&feature=share[/ame]

 

[Hivemaker.]

Could people show mercy and help.

I think they already have enough government payed people doing the culling without needing any more help.

 

[Neil]

You do realise I oppose the culling!!!!!!

 

[Hivemaker.]

Thank you for the imformation about yourself.

 

[Neil]

You're welcome. ;0)

 

[PBee]

 

[Neil]

"Dairy farmers argue that badgers are responsible for passing bovine TB to cows, and that a badger cull would help prevent the killing of thousands of dairy cows every year – animals who will be ‘culled’ anyway when they are no longer deemed to be adequately profitable. The fact that cow-to-cow transmission is more common and is not being properly dealt with gets lost in the clamour for a badger cull.

Moreover, many more dairy cows are killed each year because of lameness, mastitis or infertility than are killed because of bovine TB. Yet dairy farmers focus on the disease where they can scapegoat wildlife, rather than on the more devastating conditions that point to their own failure to improve welfare."

"Also, according to the Government, the number of cattle deaths is actually decreasing in England and Wales, with around 25,000 slaughtered in Britain because of the disease in 2010 (compared to 40,000 in 2008). Compare this to approximately 90,000 dairy cows killed annually due to mastitis (infection of the udder), 31,000 due to lameness and 125,000 due to infertility. The figure is also dwarfed by the 2,690,000 cattle that were slaughtered by the UK livestock industry in 2010 for their meat or when their milk productivity dropped. After all, a cow is only kept alive as long as there is money to be made by doing so."

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Because dairy farmers are moving out of the industry as they are taking such a hammering. There are now a lot less dairy cattle to be culled than in 2008!.
Regardless of the bunny huggers arguments - there are too many badgers around now. TB incidences do increase when badgers move in to a farm.
Badgers are also a contributing factor in the demise of the bumblebee.

BTW - I like badgers

 

[Hivemaker.]

Moreover, many more dairy cows are killed each year because of lameness, mastitis or infertility than are killed because of bovine TB. After all, a cow is only kept alive as long as there is money to be made by doing so."

Sounds like mastitis and infertility are a big problem.

 

[PBee]

"Dairy farmers argue that badgers are responsible for passing bovine TB to cows, and that a badger cull would help prevent the killing of thousands of dairy cows every year – animals who will be ‘culled’ anyway when they are no longer deemed to be adequately profitable. The fact that cow-to-cow transmission is more common and is not being properly dealt with gets lost in the clamour for a badger cull.

Moreover, many more dairy cows are killed each year because of lameness, mastitis or infertility than are killed because of bovine TB. Yet dairy farmers focus on the disease where they can scapegoat wildlife, rather than on the more devastating conditions that point to their own failure to improve welfare."

"Also, according to the Government, the number of cattle deaths is actually decreasing in England and Wales, with around 25,000 slaughtered in Britain because of the disease in 2010 (compared to 40,000 in 2008). Compare this to approximately 90,000 dairy cows killed annually due to mastitis (infection of the udder), 31,000 due to lameness and 125,000 due to infertility. The figure is also dwarfed by the 2,690,000 cattle that were slaughtered by the UK livestock industry in 2010 for their meat or when their milk productivity dropped. After all, a cow is only kept alive as long as there is money to be made by doing so."

All true, which is why I use organic milk and have in the past kept a house cow for milk. Anyone that likes their glass of non organic milk should read What to Eat by Joanna Blythman. Lets just say quietly pus content and leave it at that.
As for Badger culling most of the suits that have come up with this grand plan will know next to nothing about badgers or their ecology. When they get tired of killing them - an expensive job - they will go back to the vaccination method. But for the moment it just does not have the same political return as a high profile culling campaign.
If the politicians had to euthanise and empty the 'restraint' devices they just might not be as keen.
I am in no way against hunting for food - I do it myself - but any form of senseless killing is just that.

 

[PBee]

Badgers are also a contributing factor in the demise of the bumblebee.

Would be inclined to disagree. Land use change is the obvious one. We still make hay when we can and traditional meadows like ours are full of Bumble bee nests despite an unchanged badger population.

 

[Hivemaker.]

BTW - I like badgers

So do i, but i would not want to eat a whole one.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Would be inclined to disagree. Land use change is the obvious one. We still make hay when we can and traditional meadows like ours are full of Bumble bee nests despite an unchanged badger population.

Perhaps that the reason where you are...an unchanged badger population as opposed to one that has changed,with numbers rising far too high.

 

[PBee]

To cook one badger you’ll need:

1 badger
1 glass of pig’s blood
1 small glass of armagnac
1 ginger root
1 bottle of dry, sparkling white wine
2 eggs
1 pot of crème fraîche
salt and pepper
500g forest mushrooms OR chestnuts to accompany
100g butter
oil

Eviscerate and skin your badger, and soak it in a fast-flowing river for at least 48 hours. This will help you to de-grease it more easily.

Once the badger is de-greased, cut it into pieces and brown it in a frying pan with butter. When the pieces are golden and stiff, flambée with the armanac, season and add a grated soup-spoon of ginger, fresh if possible.

Pour over the wine, and simmer gently for at least two hours.

At the end of the cooking time, mix the chopped badger liver (cooked beforehand in a little oil), the glass of blood, two egg yolks, a coffee-spoon of ginger and the crème fraîche, and pour into the cooking dish. Serve immediately.

This dish goes well with wild mushrooms or chestnuts.

 

[Hivemaker.]

I just boiled it in cider. Sounds like it would of been better if it had been soaked in the river for 48 hours before cooking.

 

[PBee]

Perhaps that the reason where you are...an unchanged badger population as opposed to one that has changed,with numbers rising far too high.

Possibly, but I would wonder why numbers are rising in parts of England. I would have thought that their natural food supply is reducing with intensification of farming and this should reduce numbers.
By the way, there is an ongoing nationwide cull going on over here but we just have cuter politicians. I queried a cull at my local sett and found out that each district is issued a licence for the year which allows them essentially to cull within a certain area of an outbreak. This is unmonitored by the National Parks service so is in effect a open ended licence.
I have heard that a mixture of vinegar and urine applied nightly to the snares can reduce their effectiveness to zero though
Deer are also a resevoir for TB but their status as a commercial hunting species seems take the spotlight off them - so to speak.

 

[For want of a better word]

I presume the Badger Act is not applicable to Eire...

personally I like my Badger to be well hung and sautéed with wild garlic and served with bramble jelly!

Swan is even better !

 

[PBee]

I presume the Badger Act is not applicable to Eire...

personally I like my Badger to be well hung and sautéed with wild garlic and served with bramble jelly!

Swan is even better !

They are a protected species here but like a lot of things it depends on who you know. The Willy DeVille song 'Southern Politician' comes to mind.

 

[Brosville]

It's yet again another example of crass idiocy from the bunch of inadequates in power who are giving way to powerful lobbyists, rather than following the science - which clearly shows a slaughter (lets call a spade a spade!) of badgers will make things worse.

On every level it is stupid in the extreme - an already unpopular government will lose swathes of support, and there are enormous "public order" issues that will surface - a great many people will mobilise to spoil the shootings. The moment videos of injured shot badgers hit Youtube, and protesters get injured, all hell will break loose.

Yet again, they're failing to learn from history - back in 1995 I went along to photograph the Shoreham Live animal exports demonstrations (with no axe to grind, I'm an unrepentant meat-eater and leather wearer), and expected to see rabid "activists" making a nuisance of themselves - couldn't have been further from the truth - there were hundreds of well-dressed protesters, mostly middle-aged ladies who would be more normally seen in the WI or church choir - a few noisy teenagers, perhaps a dozen or so "animal rights scruffs", and hundreds of the MET, faces and numbers covered, "up for a fight"

The powers that be will attempt to daemonise the protesters, but it will be a great many "ordinary" people who will take to the fields and woods to halt this travesty - thanks to camera phones and the internet, whatever happens will come out this time.
I predict a lot of trouble all round, not least for farmers, who are (rightly or wrongly) seen by the public as rich and uncaring - far from getting support about supermarkets screwing them into the ground on prices, they'll lose what little support they had - there's already a campaign to boycott their milk..........

Sheer lunacy!

 

[mbc]

Save the endangered species,.......the UK dairy farmer !
We need to produce more milk for ourselves rather than importing such vast amounts from the continent, and however much I like badgers, most dairy people I talk to believe the "mochyn ddaear" ( earth pig ) is responsible for much of their woes.
Although they get compo for slaughtered cows, I believe its the inconvenience and added cost of standstills on their animals which pushes the whole enterprise further towards being nonviable, a cost not associated with lameness or mastitis (most cases of which are easily treated).