BVA statement on bovine TB announcement

Defra Secretary of State Owen Paterson has published the Independent Expert Panel (IEP) report on the humaneness, safety and efficacy of the pilot badger culls in England, and the Government’s response. He has also published the full Bovine TB Strategy for England. Commenting, BVA President Robin Hargreaves, said: “Clearly the headlines from the IEP report […]
Badger Cull roll-out postponed – but will return to Gloucester and Somerset

A potential badger cull across 10 further counties in England has been postponed by the government, but culling will continue in Somerset and Gloucestershire, it has been announced today. Secretary of State Owen Paterson told Parliament that the government was listening to advice from the Independent Expert Panel Report and wished to ‘perfect’ the culling […]
Plans to eradicate bovine TB in England unveiled
A comprehensive Strategy to achieve TB free status in England by 2038 has been announced by Environment Secretary Owen Paterson today. This includes continuing to strengthen cattle movement controls, a grant-funded scheme for badger vaccination projects in the ‘edge area’ at the frontier of the disease, and improvements to the four-year badger cull pilots in […]
Blueprint for Beating bTB

A detailed analysis of how farmers in Wales are defeating bovine TB (bTB), without culling badgers, will be revealed tonight at a Royal Society debate into ways to tackle the disease. The official figures show that the number of cattle slaughtered in Wales has almost halved since 2009, using just better controls and testing methods. […]
BBC complaint ruling destroys claims that Ireland badger cull has reduced TB

Claims that badger culling in Ireland has contributed to a fall in bovine TB (bTB) rates have been blown out of the water by a significant BBC ruling. The ruling, released today by the BBC Trust, means that a key cornerstone of the British Government’s justification for a cull in England has been destroyed. The […]
MPs vote 219 to 1 against the badger cull
MPs voted overwhelmingly to halt the controversial badger culls in England yesterday. The motion was proposed by the Conservative MP Anne Main and stated that the pilot culls had “decisively failed”. Farming minister George Eustice refused to respond to a challenge to hold a full debate and vote in government time, choosing, rather, to defend the culls, […]
BBC accepts it was wrong to state that badger culling in Republic Ireland reduced TB in cattle

In a ground-breaking decision the BBC today accepted it was wrong to state that badger culling in the Republic of Ireland had reduced incidences of TB in cattle. The statement was following a complaint from a member of the public concerning an article published on the BBC Website on the 31st May 2013 “How did […]
Green MEP responds to badger cull study

An independent scientific assessment of last year’s pilot badger culls in parts of Gloucestershire and Somerset has concluded that they were not effective. The study also found many badgers to have endured unnecessary suffering. Keith Taylor, the Green Party’s MEP for South East England and a member of the European Parliament’s Animal Welfare Intergroup, has […]
Badger Culls ‘failed and were inhumane’ – independent report

An independent report into the badger cull in Gloucestershire and Somerset has concluded ‘that they were not effective’, according to the BBC. The report showed that the cull failed to kill anywhere near the number that was deemed to be required to have an impact on bovine TB. It also said that potentially up to […]