Between Brock And A Hard Place

‘BE on the look-out for a new type of creature running over your gardens in fear of its life and cowering in the hedgerows as it’s chased by braying men and women on horseback.

”I had that Ron Davies in my sett once”

This beast is of similar dimensions to a fox but possesses the soft black and white pelt of a badger. And it could help solve the hunting debate.

The Telegraph says that a study into badgers in Ireland shows that culling them would virtually wipe out tuberculosis in cattle.

The disease is a problem, costing the Treasury £100m each year as cows have to be slaughtered – and the study seems pretty conclusive.

Over a five-year period, scientists found that by culling more than 2,000 badgers in Donegal there was, by the fifth year, a 96% reduction in cattle infection.

In Cork, there was a 75% reduction in the disease, around the same figure in Kilkenny and a 57% reduction in Monaghan.

So now British farmers want to follow suit and cull badgers.

As NFU spokeswoman Jan Rowe says: ”The Irish study gives a very strong indication that proactive culling is about the only thing that is going to make an impression on the disease.”

The case for culling seems clear enough. But the problem remains that badgers look cuddly, have names like Mr Brock and are the favourites of former Welsh Secretaries and Liverpool truck drivers.

However, with the Government’s spin machine on the case, we will soon come to realise that badgers are the epitome of undiluted evil and must be wiped out.

And if their pelts can be stitched onto a fox’s back, we will all be happy…’

Posted: 10th, January 2005 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink