Poor old badgers. Not since the hunting ban has a wild animal evoked such fierce passions, both in farmers convinced they spread TB to cattle and wildlife lovers implacably opposed to a government-backed cull which will mean the deaths of more than 42,000 badgers this year. Only now it seems we may have been barking […]
Tag: vaccination
Secret filming reveals hidden cruelty of licensed badger culls
Trapped in a cage and shot at close range, the badger takes almost a minute to die. Covert footage published online by the Observer, the first to be shared publicly, shows the main method of dispatching Britain’s largest indigenous carnivore as part of a controversial cull now being expanded by the environment secretary, Michael Gove, […]
Huge increase in badger cull will see up to 42,000 shot
The controversial badger cull in England has been hugely expanded into 10 new areas, with up to 42,000 animals now due to be shot in an attempt to curb tuberculosis in cattle, up from 32,500 last year. The farming minister George Eustice claimed the cull is starting to show results in Gloucestershire and Somerset, with […]
Why Is New Zealand Releasing a Rabbit-Killing Virus?
Wild rabbits are considered pests in New Zealand, and they reportedly cause substantial damage to pastoral land. The country has now decided to release a virus to cull rabbits, but environmentalists warn that this is a serious mistake. In late February, officials agreed to release the virus — known as rabbit hemorrhagic virus disease, or […]
POLL: Should bovine TB be controlled by culling or vaccinating badgers?
Wildlife charities have resumed vaccinating badgers against bovine TB after a global shortage of the vaccine caused it to be suspended last year. But more badgers than ever before are set to be culled this summer as Wales follows England in introducing a targeted cull in a bid to reduce bovine TB. While the Department […]
POLL: Should the Government cull badgers or vaccinate them?
The government’s killing targets for the controversial badger cull in England are “deliberately being biased down”, according to a leading animal population expert. The badger cull, now rolled out to seven counties in England, is part of efforts to reduce the scourge of tuberculosis in cattle but has been heavily criticised by scientists. Farmers failed […]