So much for austerity - govt wasted *£6.3m* on badger cull, more than £3,000 for each badger

[edamsavestheday]

and it was all entirely pointless, of course. As they knew in the first place.

Badger cull waste of money says Telegraph.

Even the Tory press can't paint this one as anything other than a disaster characterised by incompetence/arrogance on the part of Owen Paterson. Who presumably was prepared to waste millions of pounds trying to win the farming vote.

So much for Cameron and Osborne paining themselves as careful guardians of the public purse...

[edamsavestheday]

painting! Freudian slip, whole thing v painful for both badgers and taxpayers...

[halfdrunkcoffee]

So it was a pointless waste of money, as well as being cruel and ineffective and preventing cattle TB. Poor badgers.

[edamsavestheday]

quite - 1,879 badgers killed unnecessarily. Defra says 'doing nothing is not an option' - seems doing something stupid is the preferred option.

[Pixel]

Shame they didn't at least listen to this farmer and look into a method that appears to be working for him. But no, they'd decided on culling and that was that.
Does anyone know why they don't vaccinate the cattle? It can't be cost if they were willing to spend so much killing the badgers.

[BinarySolo]

I think this is the worst government we've ever had for wildlife welfare. The badger cull was totally unscientific, unpopular and a massive failure. I really can't comprehend why the government persisted with it for so long.

I have a feeling it's far from over too.

[WetAugust]

Totally pointless waste of money when we could vaccinate herds if the EU were not so anti that action.

If they do it again it will be madness -repeating the same thing and expecting a different result

[Isitmebut]

Labour are clearly more worried about the wildlife, than the countryside economy and the UK's food security as their record (below) shows - and one of our resident UKIP rep would rather we inject chemicals into our foodstuffs rather than 'waste' a few million as a preventative measure. Marvellous.
www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1240888/ROBIN-PAGE-Yes-DO-face-food-crisis--Labours-contempt-countryside-thats-blame.html

[BinarySolo]

Hmm the writer if that article seems to have missed that labour and Tony Blair are no longer controlling the country.

Controlling cattle movements would do far more to stop the spread of btb than the cull.

[WetAugust]

It's not a preventative measure. It's a sticking plaster on an amputation.

Farners have been using and pumping livestock full of chemicals for decades, organophosphates, antibiotics, etc etc. A vaccination would not taint the product but would enable herds and badgers to coexist. Also much cleaper than destroying cattle every time they test TB+

[ClartyYakker]

WetAugust please can you clarify your statement. Are you saying that UK farmers 'pump' their livestock 'full of chemicals'? Evidence please.

There is some antibiotic use for farm animals much like there is for humans to treat infection but any animals treated do not go into the food chain until the antibiotics are out of their system. Would you rather the animals suffered?

The government provides guidance to farmers here www.gov.uk/cattle-health

Organophosphates are generally insecticides and are used externally for farm animals, much like flea treatments for cats and dogs. This prevents them from suffering from fly strikes/ getting eaten alive by maggots in summer. Again would you prefer they were left to suffer?

Surprisingly we do not disagree on the matter of the unnecessary destroying of cattle in this country. We might disagree however on our views on the poor management of the badger (and fox) population in this country.

[BinarySolo]

How many of the badgers killed had btb? Nobody knows, because they weren't tested for btb after being shot. Totally unscientific.

Rats and foxes also spread btb. I fail to see how reducing badger numbers will stop the spread when other animals can potentially spread the disease too.

[ClartyYakker]

There are a lot of mixed opinions in the farming community about the usefulness of the badger cull.

Most of the farming community would agree this cull hasn't been effective but more for the reasons that it wasn't allowed to be carried out in the way it would have been most effective because the general public wouldn't let the people who know the land and the problems to get on and do it.

www.fwi.co.uk/livestock/opinion-why-effective-badger-culling-is-essential.htm

By chance bTB has reduced in the UK www.fwi.co.uk/livestock/bovine-tb-rates-continue-to-fall.htm but again the agricultural press aren't really attributing this to the cull.

It is a very complex issue that is muddied over and over again by people's sentimentality about farming and rural life.

[hackmum]

Utterly hilarious that when the badger cull has been proven conclusively not to work, someone will pop up and claim that it really would have been effective if it weren't for the sentimental old public.

Back in 2007, a report by scientists based on 10 years of studying the evidence argued that a badger cull wouldn't work. They were right then, and they are right now. I doubt you could argue that the ISG was sentimental, though no doubt some would.

Let's face it, the people in favour of the badger cull have lost the argument fair and square, but they still won't admit it.

[BinarySolo]

But hackmum, it's those damn badgers moving the goalpost...

[Isitmebut]

That would explain some strange score lines in the Premiership this year, and England winning several times on the trot.

[edamsavestheday]

Binary I suspect that will be quoted in every article that mentions Owen Paterson for ever, including his obit.

Hackmum is right, the 2007 Krebs trial showed that culling not only doesn't work, it spreads TB as badgers move into areas where culling has been carried out.

[IrianofWay]

"But hackmum, it's those damn badgers moving the goalpost..."

Literally in some cases. I remember back in the 70s a village near us had to move the footie goals on the recreation ground because a family of badgers had moved in and undermine them extending their sett!