Badger cull is unacceptable, says expert
As the Badger Trust today begins its hearing in the Court of Appeal in a bid to stop pilot badger culls, a leading wildlife scientist claimed the cull policy was unacceptable.
Dr Chris Cheeseman, former head of wildlife diseases at the Central Science Laboratory, which carried out extensive research on badgers, is supporting the Humane Society International UK’s campaign to stop the culls in West Gloucestershire and West Somerset.
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Queen guitarist Brian May will lead a public rally against the badger cull on College Green in Bristol today
In a statement, Dr Cheeseman said: “This Government claims that their policy is science led, but I’m afraid it’s not. It could lead to the deaths of up to 130,000 badgers over a few years to achieve an overall, at best, 16 per cent reduction in cattle TB. Now there are those of us in the scientific community who think the cull will make it worse, and I suggest that’s unacceptable.”
His statement is included in a video released by Humane Society International UK entitled Kill the Cull, Not the Badgers. But a spokesman for Defra insisted the cull was science-led and quoted a document agreed by a group of scientists brought together by former Government Chief Scientist Bob Watson to show the level of scientific consensus.
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“The science is clear, and experts agree that provided culling is done in the right way it can lead to a reduction in TB in cattle,” the spokesman said. He added that no country in the world where wildlife carries TB has eradicated the disease in cattle without tackling it in wildlife as well.
Comments
by Jake_Blake
Tuesday, September 11 2012, 9:38PM
“"a document agreed by a group of scientists brought together by former Government Chief Scientist Bob Watson to show the level of scientific consensus."
Which can be seen here;
archive.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/farmanimal/diseases/atoz/tb/documents/bovinetb-scientificexperts-110404.pdf
It contains the names of no less than 9 Professors, some of which you may remember from their involvement in the RBCT.
Just to note; I think you'll find that that is not a picture of Dr Cheeseman, and that the person in the picture hasn't been mentioned at all in the article”
by LydneyBob
Tuesday, September 11 2012, 7:24PM
“A cull of government ministers would be far more humane, worthwhile and beneficial to the country.”