My thoughts on badger culling

When scientists and experts discovered that during their investigation, certain badgers were prone to a deadly disease ‘TB’; the only solution that appealed was culling them. Recent figures show over 30,000 cattle died contagiously from TB. However, other studies show after when the culling took place a few weeks ago 6.4% to 18% of the badgers were lying for an agonising 5 minutes before they died, whilst a staggering 1,771 were shot in total! Although, is it really fair these animals should be killed in such a brutal form, just so Britain can have a more varieties of meat in our diet? But before the culling took place, there was no evidence proving the public the benefits of their actions towards the badgers. Not only did the animals suffer, but over £7.29m was wasted on this practice- and that figure was spent using our tax bills according to the Independent Expert Panel, Care for the Wild. The result of this devastating happening has proven to making no difference to the TB being distributed to cattle. There was no evidence as to why it would’ve been a good idea in the first place.

In conclusion, around 50% of Extensive research carried out by Prof Woodroffe  in the 1990s had showed a failure to kill this percentage of badgers- in fact it could actually worsen matters as the disturbed and diseased animals took the TB into new areas! All in all, the numbers from now could either multiply the issue of TB, or remain the same. But before the culling took place, there was no evidence proving the public the benefits of their actions towards the badgers.

Arguably, if people in parliament were told lies or false evidence about how it’s necessary to cull badgers- of course a lot of them will fall for the opposition if it sounds persuasive enough. However, on the other hand the information mentioned may’ve been true- But clearly, not enough information to show the true benefits of badger culling, as the results were shown useless and fatal. Anyhow, I’m sure a lot of Members of parliament must’ve voted for the culling for this to have happened in the first place.

Hopefully parliament will learn from this tragedy and find the correct evidence before assuming it will save the disease from spreading to cattle.  I believe the public should automatically have a say on where their taxes go- rather than a group of people deciding it for them, because the decision agreed was by far one of the worst.