Queen guitarist, Dr. Brian May leads London march against badger culling

[Katashi_itto]

Queen guitarist and astrophysicist, Dr. Brian May, led several hundred black-and-white-clad demonstrators through the streets of London on Saturday, urging the government to scrap plans to cull thousands of badgers.

The cull, which started in two areas of southwest England on Saturday, will see up to 5,000 badgers killed in a bid to combat tuberculosis in cattle.

But animal welfare groups are outraged by the plan, claiming it is inhumane and will do little to wipe out the disease.


Bovine TB spreads from badgers to cattle, and farmers are forced to slaughter thousands of infected animals every year.

But May, 65, said there was “not a shred of reason” for the culls in Gloucestershire and Somerset in southwest England, and delivered a 235,000-signature petition against it to Prime Minister David Cameron’s office at Downing Street.

“It is a very good time for Cameron to reconsider and withdraw from this monstrous cull, in the public interest,” the rock star said as he joined hundreds of animal rights activists in central London.

The pilot schemes will see up to 70 percent of badgers killed in Gloucestershire and Somerset.

If successful, the government plans to roll out the cull in other rural areas hit badly by bovine TB.

The government argues that the cull is necessary to stop the spread of the disease, which forced English farmers to slaughter 28,000 cattle last year.


“There’s not a single country in the world that has successfully borne down on bovine TB without doing something about the reservoir in the wildlife population,” junior environment minister David Heath told BBC radio.

“Whether it’s Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, all the countries that have successfully dealt with this disease have employed a policy very similar to ours.”

But the protesters say the cull, involving trained marksmen shooting the badgers, is unnecessarily cruel.

Public opinion is divided over the plan, with 29 percent supporting it and 34 percent opposing, according to a YouGov poll published Friday.

The pilot schemes were due to begin late last year but were delayed in October after condemnation by wildlife experts and a high-profile campaign led by May.

The government blamed the delay on bad weather last summer, drawn-out legal proceedings and a request by police to postpone the culls until after the 2012 London Olympics.

The opposition Labour party, which opposes the cull, is due to force a vote in parliament on the issue on Wednesday.

More on Brian May in general here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017122564

Source: Raw Story

[dipsydoodle]

1. Good man.

[darkangel218]

2. Why are they killing the badgers?

They don't hurt anyone, they're mostly nocturnal and shy of people. Wtf!!!

[dipsydoodle]

3. Its to do with

an alleged association between badgers, cattle and tb.

[darkangel218]

4. Here is a mom badger with her cubs x

&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[dipsydoodle]

6. Badger vaccination 'would be cheaper to implement than cull'

Vaccinating badgers to curb the rise of tuberculosis in cattle would cost less than culling them, according to a new analysis of the government's own data.

Ministers have insisted that trapping and innoculating badgers is too expensive to pursue. But the high cost of policing the expected protests against the night-time shoots – due to begin at any time this summer – means the expense of the cull now exceeds vaccination, according to the UK's top badger expert, Prof Rosie Woodroffe.

"Vaccination does not prompt protest, so it is cheaper to implement than culling," said Prof Woodroffe, who was a key member of the team that spent 10 years and £50m testing badger culling before concluding that culling could "make no meaningful contribution" to reducing bovine tuberculosis (TB). "There is good reason to expect badger vaccination to reduce transmission to cattle," she said.

Woodroffe's analysis used the government's own cost estimates of badger vaccination – £2,250 per square kilometre per year – and the proposed culling – £1,000/sq km/year. When government estimates of policing costs for the cull – £1,429/sq km/year – are added, vaccination becomes the cheaper option.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jun/03/badger-vaccination-cheaper-than-cull