2024 / 25 - A happy New Year.

As 2024 winds down so do a few of the 'badger management areas', funded and operated by - farmers. Even though the Ministry in charge of the eradication of this grade 3 zoonotic pathogen was the signatory. 

 

The success, even through times of interference, criminal damage and much abuse, has been staggering.

The following is a 'thankyou from one such cull area to the farmers who made it happen.:

We write as the directors of the {}  which has now been completed. Over the last 9 years we have all worked hard to reduce the level of TB in our cattle. We are pleased to say that our project has been a great success.

When we started we were told that we could only expect to achieve 24% reduction in TB outbreaks but in fact nationally we have achieved 65% reduction with the failures we do see, having less cattle affected.

These breakdowns are often as a result of purchased cattle or around National Trust property and large wooded valleys.

We have proved without doubt that the policy of reducing numbers of the infecting species, across an area with good boundaries, reduces levels of infection and creates no perturbation. 

.Countless hours of work has been put in by many different people, to hear the vet say those magic words “You have a clear test” means so much to all cattle farmers.  

But having achieved such a reduction in the incidence of zoonotic tuberculosis, are we to see all that hard work go to waste? If the main Uni party (Labour and Tory) are to be believed, then the answer is yes, we are. Mainly because of the shrieks from the animal rights protesters and their sponsers' very deep pockets.

Which brings us neatly to today's story from Leigh-on-Sea. where the Telegraph reports that residents in this offshoot of Southend on Sea, are having problems with our stripey friends. Gardens and their sheds, allotments and roads were damaged, but then the foundations of very expensive seafront properties began to be undermined too.

And that is when:

 " The residents found themselves perplexed by the amount of red tape involved in moving the badgers on and re-homing them. Natural England will only grant licences to seal badger setts in the first half of the year. For the second half, when badgers mate and their cubs learn the ropes of independence, virtually no licences are granted. "

Welcome to our world.

The report continues, 

In Leigh’s case, the council had to wait until this six-month period was up before it could do anything. Meanwhile, homeowners feared their properties would collapse.

But worse was to follow. The Leigh badgers, so expensively moved by NE, were unimpressed by their new abodes. The report continues:

When the time finally came to remove the badgers, relief was quick-lived as, months later, they returned – thus re-setting the clock before any work could be done again.

Councillor Stephen Aylen adds his thoughts:

“Badgers have been tunnelling under our roads, sheds and even under our houses. It is becoming a concern.

Back in 1972, we only had one badger in the whole of Leigh-on-Sea. Now we’re overrun with them – and that’s partly because they’re protected.”

But that is what happens when an apex predator is not controlled, within a finite space, but with infinite food sources with which to nourish its offspring. And of course celebrity backing..

A happy New Year to all.