Badger Cull... Please Read + Sign Petition/Chain yourself to something!

[BadgerBadger]

Not been online for a while so apologies if this has already been done.

The final date for any letters/petitions of opposition to the proposed mass \link{http://www.guardian.co.uk/animalrights/story/0,,1725254,00.html\badger cull} is the 10th of this month.

If you haven't already, please take a look at the article and consider signing \link{http://www.stopthecull.info/emaildefra.php\this} email/form created by the Badger Trust, to DEFRA, it only takes a minute or two!

Done!

I thought they were protected? Obv not.

Done and circulated too- I love badgers and alwasy get upset when I see one dead on the road.
We had a whole badger familywhich used to visit us for supper every night when I was a child.

Useless fact-they LOVE peanut butter!

I'm a bit old and ricketty for chaining myself to railings these days but I've signed the petition anyway.

have done already

am manning a one-woman vigil outside the badger sett at the bottom of my garden, all mnetters welcome

Sorry, will not be signing this petition. There is a proven link between tb in cattle and tb carrying badgers. It is also a health risk to humans. It never ceases to amaze me how unsupportive of our farmers we are. First bse, then foot and mouth, now this. Oooohh lets all save the cute fluffy animal and stuff the poor sods scorting their arses off trying to scrape a living. Lets just slaughter the dairy and beef herds which help to keep this beautiful countryside beautiful and protect an animal which needs no protection. It is along the same lines as releasing mink into the wild, protecting hedgehogs on Uist, letting grey squirrels run rampant etc etc.

Callisto, cattle have passed bovine TB onto other wildlife, not the other way round - bovine TB doesn't occur naturally in wild animals. As for being unsupportive of farming - the fact that it is now possible to catch TB from a badger is the result of farming methods, many of which are unnatural and inhumane.

also our farms locally are almost all filthy

and it is NOT proven that cattle tb is passed only through badgers

what about our archaic and rubbish livestock transportation rules?

Sorry your local muddy farms offend your sensibilities Enid, do the tractors leave mud on the roads too? FGS badgers pass tb to cattle, ask any farmer, livestock vet, anyone at all in the industry. I have yet to see any dairy or beef cattle raised inhumanly, WWB in fact this country has the highest standards of farm animal welfare in Europe and probably the world. As for livestock transportation, it isn't perfect but how else are animals meant to be transported? Also blame lovely Labour for centralising abbatiors meaning much longer journeys.

It has been proven "possible" that they pass tb to cattle....lots of things in life are "possible" and aren't an excuse to go around slaughtering badgers...why do they not need protecting?
Unfortunately there is no way to test badgers for TBbut for every 10 which are killed,only one will have tb.
Oh and if farmers hadn't fed dead animals to live ones in the first place,BSE wouldn't have happened....

It has been proven "possible" that they pass tb to cattle....lots of things in life are "possible" and aren't an excuse to go around slaughtering badgers...why do they not need protecting?
Unfortunately there is no way to test badgers for TBbut for every 10 which are killed,only one will have tb.
Oh and if farmers hadn't fed dead animals to live ones in the first place,BSE wouldn't have happened....

[packs bags and leaves country]

iv signed and passed it on to my mates

mrs b idd you see the link to your dh going out on a nother htread i did for oy

all signed.

out of iterest callisto (& I know I'm opening a can of worms) any opinion on fox hunting?!

My mil had a frozen badger once, she found it in the road and froze it.
Sorry, off topic a bit.

Carry on.

cod - yes!

it bore a remarkable resemblance to him after a big night out...

falt on his back

only difference was lack of snoring sound-effects

i am not bothered abotu badgers
kill em i reckon

I tend towards Callisto's side on this one. If you've availed yourself of all the available arguments on badgers and bovine TB and still disagree with the cull, then go ahead and sign. But please don't do it out of pure sentimentality!

Yes I am pro-hunting and I hunt. I am pro-shooting and my dp shoots. No, we are not 'toffs' and we certainly arn't rich or even particularly well off. All this sentimental 'poor ickle fwuffy animal' rubbish makes me mad. There is a place for badgers in this country, but in such a managed environment it follows that the existing wildlife needs to be managed too.

My in-laws own a farm, they have owned it all their lives, his dad before him ran it etc. They have a realistic outlook on animals and death etc, but they don't allow hunting on their land. Quite frankly they try to farm in harmony with the wildlife. The hens are penned up, if a fox gets them then they make safer pens. In their words "we don't want a bunch of oiks walking around the farm with guns" (their words not mine note!).

Here in France more people are killed and injured by hunters each year than blooming foxes!

Most shooting in this country is organised so there is a very low risk of being shot by anyone shooting for sport. I really don't think the two countries are comparable on the shooting issue. But Rhubarb, I would be really interested in the French farmers outlook on tb in cattle. I bet the French general public wouldn't give a hoot if the farmers asked for a badger cull.

I think they would!

They're not all pro-hunting you know, it's quite controversal over here because of the damage done by hunters and the high accident risk. Plus most of the French I know like wildlife.