Badgering Trust

Here's an interesting bit of finger-pointing going on over in Ireland at the moment. The UK Badger Trust and a group called Badgerwatch Ireland are on the offensive against a badger cull that has been going on in Ireland for a while now. The cull is meant to stop the spread of bovine tuberculosis. (I posted about a planned badger cull in Britain here.) The Badger trust is charging that the culling is not helping stop the spread of bovine TB and call for a boycott of tourism, Irish beef and dairy products. The National Farmer's Union, however, point to statistics that show that the number of animals destroyed for having the disease have declined by 40% since the culling began.

Badgers are related to weasels, stoats, polecats, ferrets and otters and are often found in country areas near farms. There are around 200,000 badgers in Ireland.

Animal rights groups have won growing political influence in Britain in recent years with major animal welfare legislation passed last year.

The National Farmers Union, representing farmers in England and Wales and has been calling for a badger cull in Britain, disputed the report's findings.

It said the Irish government policy was succeeding with the number of cattle slaughtered as TB reactors falling by more than 40 percent between 2002 and 2006.

"This is only the latest example of the Badger Trust's state of denial over the role that badgers play in transmitting TB to cattle and other wildlife and it is doing their credibility no good at all," NFU Deputy President Meurig Raymond said in statement.

As I have written before, I suspect that many animal rights "activists" are not really driven by their love of animals as much as by a loathing for fellow humans. The fact is that Bovine TB is spreading to cats which greatly increases the risks it will spread to humans at some point. (There is also the fact that badgers make lousy neighbors.) If you have a known disease vector, you have to control it. (This offensive is very likely part of an attempt to muddy the waters for when the British government does authorize culling in Britain.)