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As the open season for shooting badgers begins on 1 June, the British Veterinary Association is reiterating its support for the planned badger cull pilots as part of the overall bovine TB eradication strategy in England.
Although the shooting of badgers is not expected to start until later in the season the BVA says it is responding to activity amongst those who oppose the cull and appealing to them to allow the necessary scientific work to take place unhindered in the two pilot cull areas.
The association points to the evidence base behind the policy - data from the Randomised Badger Culling Trials (RBCTs) - which shows that bovine TB in cattle can be reduced by around 16% in areas where a targeted, humane badger cull has taken place. The pilot culls will use different culling methods to the RBCTs and are therefore being monitored by the Independent Expert Panel made up of experts in veterinary pathology, animal welfare physiology, wildlife ecology, badger behaviour, wildlife management, ecological theory, statistics, and marksmanship.
Peter Jones, President of the BVA, said: "We have not taken the decision to support the pilot badger culls lightly; we have considered all of the scientific evidence, which supports the management of bovine TB in badgers in order to reduce the incidence of the disease in cattle.
"We accept that there is a gap in our knowledge, which is whether controlled shooting can deliver a badger cull humanely and safely, and to the same degree of effectiveness as cage trapping and shooting. That is what the pilots are designed to address and why is it important that they are allowed to go ahead unhindered.
"We understand that this is a highly emotional issue but we must be able to gather the evidence to enable future policy decisions to be based on science."
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Exactly Sal. Chest shots in free running animals at night?? This won`t be without suffering.
Just wrote a very strongly worded letter to the BVA. I think they are making a massive mistake by supporting this..
I dont think anything will stop the farmers getting their way on this one - I just hope who ever is doing the shooting is making a clean kill and not like some of the bloody idiots I have seen behind a gun
This is shameful. This cull is political not scientific. The following quote sums it up for me...
Professor John Bourne, chair of the ISG, says that a senior politician told him ‘Fine John, we accept your science, but we have to offer the farmers a carrot. And the only carrot we can possibly give them is culling badgers’.
This makes me ashamed to be a vet nurse. 16%? That's ludicrously low. I for one shall be out there protecting badgers.