Trust warns badgers at 'risk of extinction' in parts of Bucks
95% of badgers will be culled in a part of Bucks says Badger Trust
According to the Badger Trust the government is continuing to wrongly cull badgers in parts of Bucks in an attempt control an infectious respiratory disease which affects cattle.
We spoke to Peter Hambly executive director of the Badger Trust who explains the situation in Bucks:
“In Buckinghamshire right now an area of 250 square kilometres has been picked by the government to cull up 900 badgers. That means in that part of Buckinghamshire up to 95% of the badgers will be wiped out and we think this is a national tragedy.”
The current badger cull began in England in 2013 in an attempts to control bovine Tuberculosis (bTB), an infectious respiratory disease which affects cattle.
The Badger Trust say that badgers are not the problem, they say “94% of cattle infections are from cow to cow”.
Therefore, the way to resolve the issue is by restricting the movement of cattle, better testing, introducing a cattle vaccine and enhancing bio security among cattle.
How do we tackle the btB infection?
Peter Hambly executive director of the Badger Trust says “there already exists an example that the government could look to, in Wales, which had a similar level of btb, they don’t cull badgers and they are bringing btb down at a quicker rate, so if its good for Wales why is it not good for Bucks”
Only 15% of people support badger culling
“In a YouGov poll this year, only 15% of people supported the badger cull, so there is an overwhelming majority of people who are against culling badgers and yet the government persists with this unpopular policy that doesn’t work and doesn’t solve the problem of btb, all it does it wipe out this precious mammal”
Badger Trust say the mammal could become extinct
“We could be in a situation in years to come where the badger becomes extinct in parts of the country and that would be a tragedy. Culling badgers has been in this country and in Buckinghamshire for 500,000 years, we can't let it happen on our watch”