The charity is using National Badger Day (Saturday 6th
October) to highlight ineffectiveness of cull
strategy
The RSPCA is urging the government to scrap the badger cull
and introduce a more effective strategy to tackle bovine TB based
on cattle movement controls, better biosecurity, new tests and
vaccinations.
The charity’s call comes in the face of official data from
2016 which shows that only 5% (46) of 994 culled badger carcasses
tested were confirmed to be carrying the disease.
Concerned for both the welfare and health of cattle as well
as badgers, the RSPCA believes spending scarce funds on methods
such as investing in new tests and vaccination would better
protect cows, as well as prevent badgers suffering
unnecessarily.
Adam Grogan, Head of the RSPCA’s wildlife department said:
“While we agree that bovine TB must be tackled, culling badgers
is not the answer. The government’s own data showing such
low infection rates of badger carcasses from the cull zones
speaks for itself and just highlights the pointlessness of the
current official policy for eradicating TB.
“It’s high time the badger cull was scrapped, and for
scarce funds to be spent instead on alternative methods such as
stricter controls on the movement of cattle, increased levels of
cattle testing, more widespread use of new tests, improved
biosecurity, and vaccination of both badgers and cattle to stop
the spread of this devastating disease.”
The RSPCA has also spoken out about the recent announcement
to extend the cull into Cumbria, a low-risk area. The charity
believes that Cumbrian badgers will now pay the price for poor
cattle testing and movement policies, when cattle imported from
Northern Ireland brought bTB to the area. There is also
concern that the new Cumbrian badger cull licence will have
similar results to the reactive culls seen in the Randomised
Badger Cull Trials (RBCT) which were shown not to work and even
make the bTB issue worse.
