Illegal snaring of badgers rising, report finds

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/oct/02/illegal-snaring-of-badgers-cull

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Almost 700 incidents of badger persecution were reported in 2013, including badgers killed by dogs and snares and setts gassed with vehicle exhausts, according to a report by the Badger Trust.

The trust said it believed there were many thousand more incidents that went unreported and that badger persecution was rising.

Badgers are protected by law but Dominic Dyer, chief executive of the Badger Trust, said the controversial badger culls in England – intended to curb TB in cattle – were making killing the animals seem more acceptable to some. “The demonisation of the species by the government and the farming industry to justify the disastrous badger cull policy, is making a bad situation worse,” he said.

The charge was rejected as “totally irresponsible” by a spokesman for the National Farmers Union. “The NFU totally condemns any illegal activity that results in the death of any animal or the destruction of its habitat and always has. We utterly reject the allegation that we have demonised badgers. We have always said we want to see healthy badgers and healthy cattle.”

The second year of the government-approved culls, which kill thousands of badgers, started on 8 September. But sources have told the Guardian that the Gloucestershire cull has already fallen significantly behind the minimum number of badgers required to be shot.

The Badger Trust report details a wide range of badger persecution, such as poisoning and setts being burned out with petrol. Badger baiting and sett interference, including tunnels being ploughed up by farmers or dug out by property developers, were the most frequently-reported incidents. “Badger persecution is a blight on our modern society and involves people from all backgrounds and walks of life,” said Dyer.

There were 697 reports in 2013, up from 353 in 2012. The trust noted marked fluctuations from year to year, which it says may result from the difficulty of gathering data on crimes committed in rural areas. There were 851 reports in 2012 and 198 in 2011. A spokesman for the Department for Environmental, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said: “Any illegal activity should be reported to the police.”

The Badger Trust returns to court on 9 October to pursue its legal challenge against the cull. In August, it argued in the high court that the government’s decision to disband the Independent Expert Panel (IEP) that had monitored the cull in 2013 was illegal. A judge ruled against the Trust but it is taking the case to the court of appeal.

The IEP found the 2013 culls were neither effective nor humane and one member, Prof Tim Coulson, at the University of Oxford, has sharply criticised the decision to disband it. “I wonder if the government no longer wants to know the answer to whether their ongoing pilot culls will deliver the required outcome,” he said.

Despite repeated warnings from independent scientists that the cull is an expensive distraction from tackling the growing issue of bovine TB and could well make matters worse, the government remains determined to expand the policy.

Environment secretary Liz Truss told an NFU event at the Conservative party conference this week: “We have always envisaged rolling them out more widely because there are other parts of the south west, in particular, heavily infected by bTB. We do want to do that but we need to collect the evidence from these culls. We would need to start preparing for wider roll out long before the general election. We are not going to wait until after the election to make a decision. We will make it before.”

Another criticism of the cull has been the high cost, making it more expensive than badger vaccination, according to one expert. The Home Office, responding earlier in September to a freedom of information request from the Guardian, confirmed the policing cost alone as over £3.5m, over three times the initial estimate.

“For the extended pilot badger culls in Somerset and Gloucestershire in 2013 the Home Office paid the Gloucestershire police and crime commissioner £2,338,248, the West Mercia police and crime Commissioner £446,352.91 and the Avon and Somerset police and crime commissioner £739,005.40,” said the Home Office response. “Defra has agreed to cover these costs.”

The Defra spokesman said: “England has the highest incidence of bovine TB in Europe and this is threatening the future of our beef and dairy industries, and our nation’s food security. Doing nothing is not an option. That is why we are pursuing a comprehensive strategy to deal with the disease, supported by leading vets, which includes cattle movement controls, vaccinating badgers in the edge area and culling badgers where TB is rife.”