Badger Trust’s new CEO is leading anti-cull spokesman
Wildlife celebrities, politicians from across the board, scientists and anti-cull farmers have welcomed the appointment of a leading anti-cull spokesman as Chief Executive of the Badger Trust. Dominic Dyer will take up the role on March 3rd. Over the last year Mr Dyer has become one of the leading […]
The £7m Badger Cull – shock figures reveal each dead badger cost £4000+
Culling badgers in England during 2013 cost £7.3million, according to official sources and FOI requests – which works out at £4121 per dead badger. Wildlife charity Care for the Wild has pieced together the costs of the cull from various sources to come up with the ‘final reckoning’ of the cull, which dramatically failed to […]
‘Secret’ report on badger cull revealed by FOI
A ‘secret’ report on the badger cull trials has been produced by Defra and Natural England, according to an FOI request – prior to the official Independent Panel Review which was meant to investigate the policy. Care for the Wild has become aware of this report via a Freedom of Information Request, and has informed […]
George calls for badger cull to be scrapped
Mr George who strongly argues in favour of ‘evidence-based policy making’, pointed out that he had supported the randomised badger control trials (RBCT) which commenced in 1998 and which included a much-disputed controversial pro-active cull of badgers in the Penwith area of his own constituency because he argued that the experiment was necessary to provide […]
Whisper it quietly, Defra: TB cattle slaughter rates down by nearly 10% on 2012
From the start of this year, under pressure from the European Commission, the Government has forced farmers to tighten down on biosecurity controls, cattle movements and TB testing. As a result, we have seen a steady decline in the rates of TB in cattle compared to the same period in 2012. Comparing the latest DEFRA […]
FUW welcomes ASA ruling against RSPCA but calls for action by Charity Commission
An RSPCA press and poster advertisement had featured a syringe and a bullet alongside the headline “VACCINATE OR EXTERMINATE? The UK government wants to shoot England’s badgers. We want to vaccinate them – and save their lives”. The FUW and Welsh politicians Simon Hart MP and Antoinette Sandbach AM had complained about the advertisements to […]
Badger cull called off – for now
Natural England, which is managing the cull, is pulling the plug on shooting as of tomorrow (Saturday) lunchtime. A revised target of killing 58% of badgers in the zone had been set following the initial cull period, but this has also been missed by the gunmen. Dominic Dyer, Policy Advisor for Care for the Wild, […]
Claims that ‘high number of badgers are sick’ undermined by Welsh research
Consistent claims by the UK government that badgers are very sick with TB and at a high risk of spreading disease to other badgers and cattle have been shot to pieces by statistics from the Welsh Government Badger Vaccination Project. Environment Minister Owen Paterson has justified the current badger cull many times by claiming or […]
Cattle-to-cattle outbreak in Durham gets to heart of bTB problem
Reported in the Northern Echo, farmers are quoted as being “unhappy that cattle from infected with TB were brought here from a high-risk area”. The Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency, which works with Defra, said: “It is believed that the infection was inadvertently carried in cattle bought from a high risk area of the […]
