In spite of monstrous cruelty and in the face of mountains of scientific evidence that it will not work, farmers and government officials seem hell-bent on the killing of thousands of wild animals. They call it "culling", and this euphemism conceals an apparently insatiable lust to take revenge on the animal that has been made the scapegoat for the farming community's continuing inability to control bovine TB in their cattle – the badger.
There are so many reasons not to instigate a cull – and even more reasons not to license farmers to kill these wonderful creatures on their own land. It's a decision which could lead not only to immense suffering to the badgers, but could actually make the bovine TB situation worse.
It's almost unthinkable that in both England and Wales the people in government are ready to appease farmers' misplaced anger by slaughtering these creatures – a venerable and delightful species of sentient mammals which almost certainly inhabited these islands before humans. But, unless public opinion speaks loudly enough in protest, slaughter is on the cards.
I have just finished watching a TV documentary which included a token statement from the anti-culling side, but presented an otherwise apparently convincing case that killing badgers is the only way to control bovine TB. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The recent victory of the Badger Trust in the Judicial Review in Wales, leading to the cancellation of the rural affairs minister, Elin Jones's pernicious culling plan, was based crucially on the judges' realisation that even if all the badgers were killed in Wales, the likely improvement in the infection rates in cattle was likely to be just a few per cent. Jones, egged on by the farmers who helped vote her into power, seems unable to give in gracefully.
Today the Welsh assembly government is re-submitting the culling plans, following a paper based on assumptions which I think are almost certainly flawed. I believe the paper would not stand up if it were submitted to independent review in a journal such as Nature.
As for the English situation, where potential culling plans were announced last week, it's worth saying the alleged effect of badgers on the spread of TB in cows has to be viewed in context. Bovine TB is at present not transferrable to humans – we can be thankful for this, because the skin test currently used to determine whether a cow has the disease or not is woefully inaccurate. It is beyond doubt that a small amount of milk from infected cows is consumed by humans daily. The reason we don't all get sick is because the milk is pasteurised.
So, if human health cannot be affected, why the big panic? Is it sympathy for the cows? Not a chance. Bovine TB is responsible for the killing of roughly 11,000 cows annually. Shocked? Well, the corresponding figures of cows killed for other reasons will shock you much more. Dairy cows killed because they contracted mastitis (an infection of the udder) – 51,000; cows killed because they were not in calf – 75,000; cows killed because they were lame – 25,000; cows who simply died on farms – 24,000; cows killed because they got too old – 21,000. There are actually nine causes of death in cattle which outnumber those killed because they are suspected of having bovine TB. And beef cattle, of course, all die young.
So killing badgers might improve the death rate of cows by a few per cent in a category that accounts for only a few per cent of deaths anyway. The cull sounds more and more preposterous, doesn't it?
Unless we speak up – and respond to the current consultation instigated by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in England, a whole generation of our precious British wild animals will end up a bloody mess. Literally.
Are we going to stand for it? I believe that if the current breed of politicians actually get away with this, they will destroy the public's trust in farmers for ever. There will be no way back. So don't blame me, Mr Paice and Ms Jones if, in 20 years time, you are looking at a dead animal farming industry and a nation drinking soya milk. I already made the jump. I have tried this whole year to be sympathetic to farmers, but I cannot go on endorsing cruelty – and I do not believe the majority of the British public will, either.
