re: Boycott WALES: National Trust saves badgers but angers farmers by questioning validity of senseless slaughter by bloodthirsty lunatics.
Old Codger
National Trust saves badgers but angers farmers· Officials question
case for killings in TB hotspots
http://tinyurl.com/5zvp3u
· Decision is blow to pilot scheme planned for Wales
James Meikle The Guardian, Monday April 28 2008 Article historyAbout
this articleClose This article appeared in the Guardian on Monday
April 28 2008 on p5 of the UK news section. It was last updated at
11:44 on April 28 2008.
A badger cub in its den. The National Trust said it would not
cooperate with culls unless they were backed with legal force.
Photograph: Steve & Ann Toon/Corbis
Officials at the National Trust say they do not plan to cooperate with
the forthcoming badger cull in Wales and others that may follow in
England, potentially creating a significant hurdle for the government.
In a move likely to infuriate some farmers, leaders of the 3.5
million-member organisation, which owns and manages large tracts of
land, say they do not believe there is a scientific case for killing
badgers in hotspot areas of cattle TB.
The trust will not cooperate in culls unless governments in Cardiff
and London back programmes with legal force, an action that may
provoke a public outcry. It has always been cautious about outright
opposition to culls and cooperated in trials in south-west England
between 1998 and 2005, angering other green groups. But its officials
are now stiffening resistance, while recognising that this may cause
difficulties with scores of tenant farmers.
David Bullock, the trust's head of nature conservation, said: "We have
obligations both to badgers and the people who use our land. We are
not persuaded it is the right thing to do."
If trials on the effectiveness of culls had shown they could reduce
cattle TB by 80% - a real difference - "then, subject to the highest
welfare standards, we could not have objected to a badger cull, but it
has not gone that way," Bullock said.
The Welsh assembly has endorsed an intensive pilot cull of badgers,
although it has yet to decide where, and insists it will be part of a
much wider package including more testing of cattle, better husbandry
and encouragement of the development of vaccines against TB.
Injecting badgers may be possible within two years, with cattle
vaccines following relatively soon after.
The trust controls 28,000 hectares (70,000 acres) of land in Devon and
Cornwall, 25,000 in Somerset, Dorset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire,
and more than 5,500 in Gower and Pembrokeshire, all areas where cattle
TB has spread rapidly. In Wales it controls 50,000 hectares in total.
This includes coast, estates and farms. Some farmers could choose to
take part in culls, depending on the nature of their tenancy
agreement, but Bullock said the trust would enter into "negotiation
and persuasion" with them.
Hilary Benn, the environment minister, has yet to decide whether a TB
eradication programme in England should include culling, a delay that
has infuriated farmers.
The trust says there is no area with wide enough natural boundaries in
Wales for a cull that would meet the demands of the scientists who
supervised the trials and it would not cooperate with any voluntary
cull in Wales or England. Culls covering such areas would also
inevitably miss some badgers and they would wander more widely,
possibly leading to more cattle TB. Bullock said: "We want a
resolution of this issue. We worry that investment in research and
development for vaccines will not be maintained when we are so nearly
there."
A spokeswoman for the Welsh assembly said the pilot cull would be part
of a comprehensive package and there was still work to do, including
on the location, size, duration and method of culling.
The National Farmers' Union in Wales, which has welcomed the
assembly's plans, said it would not comment on the trust's position
and said it was not certain a pilot area would include trust land.
Smid
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> National Trust saves badgers but angers farmers· Officials question
> case for killings in TB hotspots
Can't have free speech eh?
Smid