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Badger cull starts in Somerset and Gloucestershire Badger cull starts in Somerset and Gloucestershire
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This year's controversial badger cull in Somerset and Gloucestershire is under way, the government has announced.This year's controversial badger cull in Somerset and Gloucestershire is under way, the government has announced.
The second year of a four-year scheme has started in the two counties in an attempt to prevent the spread of bovine TB in cattle.The second year of a four-year scheme has started in the two counties in an attempt to prevent the spread of bovine TB in cattle.
The environment secretary, Elizabeth Truss, said: "We are pursuing a comprehensive strategy supported by leading vets which includes cattle movement controls, vaccinating badgers in edge areas and culling badgers where the disease is rife.The environment secretary, Elizabeth Truss, said: "We are pursuing a comprehensive strategy supported by leading vets which includes cattle movement controls, vaccinating badgers in edge areas and culling badgers where the disease is rife.
"This is vital for the future of our beef and dairy industries, and our nation's food security."This is vital for the future of our beef and dairy industries, and our nation's food security.
"At present we have the highest rates of bovine TB in Europe."At present we have the highest rates of bovine TB in Europe.
"Doing nothing is not an option and that is why we are taking a responsible approach to dealing with bovine TB.""Doing nothing is not an option and that is why we are taking a responsible approach to dealing with bovine TB."
Last year a total of 921 badgers were killed in Gloucestershire and 940 were shot in Somerset.
Neither pilot managed to kill the 70% of the badger population thought to be needed to make the cull effective in reducing TB in cattle herds in the area, despite a five-week and three-day extension in Gloucestershire and a three-week extension in Somerset.
In Somerset 65% of the badger population was killed and in Gloucestershire the figure was 40%.
Former environment secretary Owen Paterson said the "badgers moved the goalposts" when asked why marksmen failed to reach a cull target.
Last week the government announced a scheme to vaccinate badgers next to the two cull areas in a bid to create a "buffer zone".
Under the scheme – which will target counties in a strip down the middle of England such as Cheshire, Oxfordshire and Hampshire – a package of support will be available, including funding of up to 50% of the long-term costs for vaccinating.
Vaccination projects could also receive advice from experts, free loans of equipment such as traps and free supplies of vaccines.
The government and farmers insist that culling is necessary to tackle TB in livestock, which saw more than 26,000 cattle slaughtered in England last year and multimillion-pound losses.
But opponents say culling is inhumane and ineffective, and alternatives such as vaccination should be pursued.
Meurig Raymond, president of the NFU, wrote to members to inform them the second year of culling has started.
"Travelling round the country, I've seen first-hand the total human misery this disease causes for farmers and their businesses," Raymond, a Pembrokeshire farmer, wrote.
"I've sat round farm kitchen tables with families who have been driven to despair after investing time and money building up their herds, only to see them devastated by bovine TB.
"I've spoken to grown men who've been reduced to tears as they load cow after cow, or calf after calf, onto lorries to be taken away for slaughter because of this disease.
"I also know from personal experience the emotional and economic impact this disease has because my own farm is currently under TB restrictions and I am determined to ensure that everything possible is done to tackle this disease.
"No one would choose to kill badgers if there was an effective alternative in areas where TB is rife.
"But if we're ever going to get on top of bovine TB in areas where the disease is endemic there is no other choice.
"The chief vet has said culling over a four-year period in both pilot areas will have an impact on disease control.
"I am confident that these pilot culls will help deliver a reduction in bovine TB in cattle and it is vital that they are allowed to be successfully completed so they can deliver the maximum benefits."
Raymond also said that badger vaccination could have a role to play in areas that are clear of bovine TB to stop the disease spreading any further.
"I know farmers in some of these areas are already involved with local badger vaccination projects because they recognise how important stopping this disease is," he said.
"Cattle vaccination is also a key element. It is unacceptable that a workable cattle vaccine is still 10 years away and I can assure you the NFU will be doing everything it can to get this process speeded up."
Anti-cull campaigners greeted the news with sadness and anger.
Dominic Dyer, of the Badger Trust and Care for the Wild, said: "This is a triumph of politics, pride and persecution over common sense and science.
"Potentially, almost 2,000 badgers could die – that's more than last year – and for what?
"These culls are ill-conceived and incompetently managed, and will contribute nothing to reducing bovine TB in cattle.
"Here we have a government and the National Farmers Union pushing ahead with a policy simply because they don't have the guts to admit that it is wrong, and a complete and utter disaster for the farming industry, taxpayer and the protection of our native wildlife."
Dyer said campaigners were likely to take the high court decision to reject a judicial review of the need for independent monitoring of the cull operators to the court of appeal.
"The same discredited arguments are being wheeled out," Dyer said.
"They say no country has beaten bovine TB without culling wildlife – not true, the UK did it in the 1960s and 1970s.
"They say falling bovine TB rates in Ireland show that culling works – but the same reduction has been achieved in Northern Ireland without any culling.
"They say that 'closed' herds are being infected, so it can only be the badgers spreading the disease – but the bovine TB skin test misses 20% of infected cows, meaning they never know for sure that a herd isn't hiding a sick cow.
"To cap it all, as the chief veterinary officer for Wales told the Badger Trust Conference recently that in the past five years the Welsh government has achieved a 48% drop in the number of cattle slaughtered due to bovine TB purely by increasing the amount of testing and thus ensuring sick cattle are less likely to be moved around.
"The answer to this mess is self-evident – focus on the cattle – but the government is too stubborn to back down.
"Meanwhile, badgers will die, peaceful protesters will flock to the cull zones, neighbour will turn against neighbour, cattle will continue to contract bovine TB, and farmers will continue to be sold false hope.
"What a sad and pathetic state of affairs."
Queen guitarist Brian May, who is a member of Team Badger and the Save Me Trust, called on this year's culls to be cancelled.
"It's almost beyond belief that the government is blundering ahead with a second year of inept and barbaric badger killing," he said.
"TB in cattle in England is currently at its lowest level in 10 years, the drop being predictably the result of improved husbandry in cattle.
"So this is a most inappropriate moment for Cameron to be wasting taxpayers' money persecuting our wildlife against the advice of every independent scientist in the field.
"Even the government's own expert panel has branded the cull as ineffective and inhumane.
"Current revelations from a whistleblower damn the process even more, making it clear that the numbers the present shooters are working towards are completely unreliable.
"This cull is a failure and a disgrace – no more than the fulfilment of a dirty promise - which will rebound on this government at election time."