Badger cull will not stop TB, claims Staffordshire campaigner
The controversial badger cull will not prevent the spread of tuberculosis and could result in farmers being accidentally shot, a Staffordshire wildlife campaigner said today.
Farmers in Somerset and Gloucestershire have been given permission to shoot up to 80 badgers a night in a pilot scheme to stop the disease spreading to livestock.
But Faye Burton, founder of the Rural Policing Liaison Group, said the idea was 'unscientific' and that efforts should instead be focused on vaccinations.
She said: "It is appalling. Even if they killed all the badgers in the UK there would still be TB here. They are just making a scapegoat. Dogs carry it, foxes carry it. In my 42 years of dealing with badgers I have never come across a badger that's got TB.
"I can't understand why farmers are saying that vaccination won't do any good, because it will," she added. "It will slow down the process. If we don't listen to the scientists we are on a slippery slope."
Environment secretary Owen Patterson has argued that it would take at least another decade to develop a 'workable' vaccine for the disease, which is said to affect around 38,000 cattle every year.
In a letter to members, National Farmers' Union President Peter Kendrall said many had 'suffered the misery of dealing with TB on-farm' for decades.
Ms Burton said she wanted to support farmers, but added that she also worried unskilled shooters could injure or even kill people walking at night.
She said: "We have people out there doing night-walking and night patrols and I am really concerned someone will get shot in this campaign. There are also going to be a lot of badgers crawling away dying horrible deaths as they haven't been cleanly killed."
Campaigners in Somerset against the pilot scheme staged a night vigil, while members of the action group Stop The Cull formed a 'wounded badger patrol' in Gloucestershire.
