Badger crimes in the spotlight

“Scrofula.

http://tinyurl.com/9r6ennv”

“Scrofula.

null (open in a new window)”

“Again badgerists are wasting public money and police time, instead of concentrating on the issues that most concern the informed members of the rural community.

Apart from the obviously now very urgent imperative to end the slaughter of thousands of reactor cattle that's causing endless misery for farming families; those of us who care about children, way above their own self-promotion, know that there has to be a badger cull or eventually we'll just have more and more of this.

EMAIL SENT/RECEIVED April 2nd. 2006

County Times. Powys, Mid Wales.

"Dear Mary,

This is winding up into something very nasty. We were told about the problem last autumn, but the newspapers / media had very little on it. Local vets and farmers knew and fed us bits. This (below) was published 30th. March, and our source has now had another conversation with SVS vets and private vets in the area.

In the late 1990's just a couple of farms were under bTb restriction, but that has now surged to become 30/40. Dead badgers have been found in the area, including one on school playing fields.

This carcass was taken to test for 'poison'. but HSE stepped in and stopped the postmortem - inadequate Group 3 pathogen facilities (?). . It was riddled.

SVS sent letters to Welsh Assembly / Page St. and they were lost stolen or strayed. The whole episode was buried. Page St. wanted absolutely no positive Tb badgers.

In the last 3/4 years eight or nine children, not including this little one, have had treatment for enlarged neck glands. This involved either a 6 month course of antibiotics, or operations to remove. Classic m.bovis lesions I'm told (by a vet) but referred euphemistically by doctors as "Atypical tuberculosis from a non human source". They are telling these kids, that they picked it up from the ground.

The badgers use the school playing fields as latrines, and a newish housing estate borders the same farmland too.

We're ignoring those canaries again. (reactor cows)"

null”

“With regard to this report i.e. Operation Meles. If this operation is aimed at badger baiting then all for the good. Other than that I sincerely hope that both my and many,many others taxpayers monies are being spent on catching and punishing real criminals. I would rather my taxes were spent on making sure the old and vulnerable were being taken care of properly.”

“It's just as well that further independent analysis is showing that there would be 30+% reduction in cattle incidence and that based on the fact that farmers are in fact taking the brunt of the costs for culling we the public will in fact be paying very little.”

“@eyeopener

I cannot advise you on whether to stay or not, but its always a pleasure talking to you eyeopener.

If you could eventually learn to workout how many prime numbers there are between 1 and 27,102, I feel sure you would be able to understand the complexities of the spread of all the bacteria in TB causing Mycobacterium tuberculosis genus of Mycobacteria, including the Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC). . That subject confounds many people and I know it's difficult for you, but I'm sure 2ladybugs will help you if you ask her nicely. . She's been around these boards for a very long while.”

“Peter Kendalls comments sound most impressive. Odd that ONLY the Farmersguardian carried his statement.

Peter Kendall said "While the net figure in the RBCT was reduced to 16 per cent as a result of the perturbation effect, longer term data showed that effect disappeared over five years."

In other words the tax payer will have to wait 14 years to see the benefit!

He insisted he did not think NFU claims of an effect of up to 30 'can be said to be a wild exaggeration'.

As Mandy Rice Davies famously said "Well he would say that wouldn't he".”

“NFU president Peter Kendall has hit back at claims by eminent biologist Lord Krebs that the union presented 'misleading, dishonest' data to back its case for a badger cull.

In an open letter to the scientist, Mr Kendall has accused Lord Kreb, himself, of making incorrect assertions not backed by evidence in comments in the House of Lords made in the aftermath of the decision to postpone the two badger cull pilots until next year.

Lord Krebs, who recommended the 10-year Randomised Badger Culling trial (RBCT), told peers last week that 'long-term, large-scale culling of badgers is estimated to reduce the incidence of TB in cattle by 16 per cent after nine years'.

He added: "The number is not the 30 per cent that the NFU quoted; that is misleading - a dishonest filleting of the data."

Lord Krebs went on to claim that the NFU 'backed out, it is because it was due to pay those who were going to shoot the badgers on a per-badger basis'. The NFU had calculated its costs it on the basis of shooting 1,300 badgers but was 'suddenly told' the figure was 5,500 badgers, he said.

"The farmers thought it was worth doing-but not that much. They have done their own cost-benefit calculation and say that it is not worth the candle," he said.

In his letter, Mr Kendall said follow-on data from the RBCT showed a 28.3 per cent 'beneficial effect' on cattle disease from culling badgers. While the net figure in the RBCT was reduced to 16 per cent as a result of the perturbation effect, longer term data showed that effect disappeared over five years.

Mr Kendall said Lord Krebs had failed to acknowledge that the pilot culls would be carried out over larger areas than the RBCT and, unlike the 10-year trial, 'without porous boundaries'.

He insisted he did not think NFU claims of an effect of up to 30 'can be said to be a wild exaggeration'.

"I do not therefore accept your contention that this amounts to a dishonest filleting of the data," Mr Kendall wrote.

Mr Kendall also robustly refuted Lord Krebs' claims over the reasons behind the NFU's decision to postpone the pilot culls.

"This was not, as you state, the result of farmers undertaking a crude cost-benefit analysis. I am extremely surprised that you should make such a statement without any evidence base whatsoever," he told Lord Krebs.

He reiterated that the NFU made the decision based on the impracticalities of culling more badgers than initially expected so late in the year. "We were well aware that the available science indicates important risks if a cull is not implemented correctly. In other words, it was a decision taken in light of the evidence," he wrote.

He stressed that a 16 per cent reduction – in the RBCT, the prevention of 47 outbreaks out of 292 over nine years – is 'an important demonstration of the efficacy of culling as part of a wider control and eradication strategy'.

He concluded: "Farmers on the ground remain committed to carrying out the cull effectively and meeting the full costs of this."

Lord Krebs is now 'under the cosh'.”

“The longest provable and verifiable 'TEST' was made between 1950 and 1984.

By the early 1980s bTB was almost eradicated from the UK. Only 100 new outbreaks were being recorded and in 1984 only 400 cattle were slaughtered.

If your opinion was even REMOTELY correct, there would have been many thousands of cattle out there dying miserably deaths and clinically sick with tuberculosis. .

THERE WERE NOT. THERE ARE NOT AND THERE NEVER HAVE BEEN.

Cattle are tested and slaughtered if they react. . . Badgers just keep incubating and spreading the disease multiplying whilst still dying miserable deaths in their thousands.

Very fortunately I do know what I'm talking about.”

“The longest provable and verifiable 'TEST' was made between 1950 and 1984.

By the early 1980s bTB was almost eradicated from the UK. Only 100 new outbreaks were being recorded and in 1984 only 400 cattle were slaughtered.

If your opinion was even REMOTELY correct, there would have been many thousands of cattle out there dying miserably deaths and clinically sick with tuberculosis. .

THERE WERE NOT. THERE ARE NOT AND THERE NEVER HAVE BEEN.

Cattle are tested and slaughtered if they react. . . Badgers just keep incubating and spreading the disease multiplying whilst still dying miserable deaths in their thousands.

Very fortunately I do know what I'm talking about.”