In the last month or so, we have noted a depressing 'sea change' in attitudes of people (some of whom should really know better) as to the way forward in controlling b.tuberculosis 'endemic in badgers' which has now spilled over to create 'an epidemic in cattle'. Our grateful thanks as ever, to Ben Bradshaw for confirming both descriptions in Parliamentary Questions archived on this site.
Recently Farmers Guardian reported the comment by Prof. Stephen Harris of Bristol University, that any badger culling strategy would now have to be so draconian as to be 'politically unacceptable', and it would be better to wait for a cattle vaccine. And the corridors of power in the giddy heights of Defra appear to take the same line. It's too late for any definitive action on badgers.
Why?
From where we sit, nailed down amidst skip loads of dead cattle and years of ongoing restrictions on our business, visits from Communicable Disease specialists, our markets reduced and our tourism enterprises compromised that's defeatist, dangerous and just plain wrong. It is also reckless in the extreme to allow a reservoir of a major Grade B1 pathogen - a zoonosis affecting many other species as well as man - to become entrenched in Britains' countryside.
What is wrong with telling the taxpaying public the truth?
Sorry I forgot - there's an election coming up. Silly me.
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