Badger cull activists "intimidate" Gloucestershire farmers

“The new incidence rate of bovine tb is falling significantly. This could be due to the fact that cows have been housed for longer due to the poor summer; it could also be that the need bio-security and husbandry is gaining favour within the farming community.
The tuberculin bacterium has been found to exist in stagnant water. This begs the question of just which species of animal is infecting the other. Cattle water troughs are rarely, if ever, cleaned out. In the winter time when cattle are in the barns for several months the water troughs, once frequented by slobbering cows, become a water source for the eco system. They often have dead birds and rodents rotting within them, (they carry tb too). These troughs become a drinking font for foxes, dear and badgers. This water is warmed by the late spring sunshine and soon turns into a petri dish of life threatening infection. On one glorious spring day the cows are turned out to grass; they are expected to drink this water and they do. A similar tank of bacteria ridden sludge stands waiting in every field.
There is probably not a more efficient way of spreading the tuberculin bacterium than this, except maybe than injecting tb direct into a lung.
If badgers are shot, for what appears to be a man-made problem, then it will still remain a problem. When the torch comes on and the first shot is fired the badgers will scatter. These will be the healthier individuals who forage first and are more robust; these are the ones who will be left to die a slow death in the sets; these are the ones to become more prone to tuberculosis as they are persecuted by gunmen and these will be the ones left to breed a lack lustre generation of badgers that are more prone to disease. Selective breeding gone the wrong way.
Emotions are running high on both sides of this debate but there is no room for intimidation and violence. These and other issues are being considered at the highest level in government but unfortunately there are those who are trying to rail this cull through. The best and most likely outcome in all this is that there will be a parliamentary debate.”

“As in any group you have good and bad. I walk a great deal in this beautiful country of ours and there are many farmers that are extremely good at maintaining rights of way, even to their detriment. I have walked through crops with paths much greater than a metre wide. However, I have also come across footpaths with styles that are extremely overgrown and crops filling the field with no path through, especially peas! Certainly I can see no logical argument that supports the theory that it is anti-cull supporters are destroying styles. What would be the point?

As for the vaccine, yes, any farmer can vaccinate his herd the EU will not stop the farmer doing this, unfortunately he just cannot then use it for anything or move it because there is no test that can determine between a positive bTB result due to vaccination or one with full blown bTB. Perhaps if just a few of the hundreds of millions of pounds that had been spent on this issue since the 1970s had been spent on a vaccine whereby such a determination could be reached with a simple bTB test then destruction of cattle would not still be happening and no cull would be planned.”

“Where's the evidence for the damage? Most farmers don't maintain rights of way anyway and don't like people on their land. We want access to the countryside as is our right, why would we smash styles up. NONSENSE!”

“People red arrow the facts about vaccination. Why? They would rather live in their own fluffy world.
I would love to see badgers vaccinated instead of culled, but it doesn't work that way. The hard time farmers have been given over the past few weeks only makes me sympathise with them more.
E_Badger, thanks for the useful link, which says farmers can plough, and I imagine somebody will be up every morning with hiking boots, dayglow anorak and clipboard, making sure the mean old farmers comply.

Farmers ey, what's the world coming to when people are trying to farm the land and provide food for the world.”

“@TimMessanger ... depends on whether it's a dry stone wall and I can be bothered with the digging.”

“@E_badger - you should not be bothered about styles as you would just go under the fence would you not!”

“@gallopingbear ... You need to familiarise yourself with legislation regaring Public Rights of Way. Here is nice link for you to read...

http://tinyurl.com/8ltnhwj

"Footpaths - Footpaths on edge of a field must not be ploughed. Footpaths can be ploughed, if they cross fields. However, a minimum width of 1 metres must be made available within 14 days of ploughing. Landowners must also ensure that they restore footpaths after ploughing."

In clarification of my only just legible previous post (mobile technology huh!) it would not make sense for a protester to destroy a stile because they require access as much as the farmer and general rambling public does. If however the insinuation is destruction through excessive wear and tear, then the farmer needs to be looking at maintaining his public rights of way instead of letting them deteriorate to dangerous conditions that they fall apart in use.”

“If you vaccinate the badger, it then has tb, same as if you vaccinate the cows. EU law does not permit vaccinating cattle for TB.
Vaccination does sound the best option, but a suitable vaccine has not yet been developed. Doubtless much money has been spent on trying to do this.
This is a trial cull in two areas. There will still be badgers. It has been on the cards for decades.”

“fair play to them, i am with the badgers all the way, farmers got no value on life so culling means nothing to them, and yes before you ask i AM vegetarian.”

“Jan Rowe, 67 "The thing is it has been from people who have no idea about the cull, it is just a cause they have latched onto."

Absolutely right.”