Dominic Dyer

Badgered to Death: The People and Politics of the Badger Cull (eBook, ePUB)

Introduction by Chris Packham

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

A vital read for anyone who cares about the future of British wildlife. With a foreword by the BBC TV presenter Chris Packham.''A thriller, whodunnit and impassioned polemic.'' - PATRICK BARKHAM, THE GUARDIAN Dominic Dyer explores the science and electioneering behind Britain''s most controversial wildlife policy: the badger cull. He exposes the catastrophic handling of bovine TB by the British government, the political manoeuvring that engineered the badger cull in 2010, and the ongoing close relationship in perpetuating the cull between the National Farmers Union and the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).He shines an unflattering spotlight on Cabinet ministers, the veterinary profession, environmental NGOs and the BBC.Reviews''I enjoyed reading this book and I strongly recommend it to you. ''This is a powerful and stimulating read and it''s bang up to date with the important issue it discusses. It is written by a passionate insider with years of experience. The narrative is pacey and exciting. This book arrived with me on Thursday afternoon and I had read it completely by early yesterday [Saturday] morning.'' - MARK AVERY, WRITER, BLOGGER AND ENVIRONMENTAL CAMPAIGNER''A vital must-read for anyone concerned about the badger''s enduring place in the British countryside.''A thriller, whodunnit and impassioned polemic, this is the inside story of the badger cull.''- PATRICK BARKHAM, THE GUARDIAN ''It should be read by all those battling against government policies that put money ahead of science and the environment. ''The book''s conclusion is that the culls will be stopped, not by science or validity, but by cost. Yet Dyer remains optimistic: ''Despite all the incompetence, negligence and deceit, it''s the caring compassionate British public who have made a stand for wildlife that gives me the most hope for the future.''''His book pays tribute to the ''Badger Army'', those many individuals from all walks of life who turned out to protest and importantly, once culling started, to protect the badgers out in the field.''Those people will be patrolling the countryside, day and night, in every area where badger killing is taking place this autumn. While determined to protect their badgers, many also want to see the government help and support farmers to beat the TB in their cattle - but with proper cattle-based measures, not by senselessly killing wildlife.''- LESLEY DOCKSEY, THE ECOLOGIST, ''Why are our badgers ''Badgered to Death''?'' Introduction by Chris PackhamHow viciously fickle we are. We arbitrarily pick and choose which species we like or dislike, normally and sadly based on purely anthropomorphic criteria, and then either laud or loathe them paying scant attention to the realities of their lives, or ours. And once cursed and demonised that tag is almost impossible to redress. Think rat, think fox... damned for historical crimes, firmly fixed as malevolent vermin, even in our supposedly enlightened age. But as this book displays we can also be quick to destroy the reputation of our animal heroes and blight their status with bigotry and ignorance.For many reasons we had come to love the badger, to cherish and admire it, to protect and celebrate it and of course many still do. But the reputation of this essential member of the UK''s ecology has been targeted by a smear campaign which has been swallowed by the gullible and fuelled by those with vested interests. You see, in spite of all the science and all the truths that it outlines, the badger has become a scapegoat. Its been branded a ''bad guy'' and is being persecuted as such. It''s a terrible shame, but like I said, how fickle, how vicious, how predictably human. Buy the book and carry on reading Chris Packham''s introduction

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Canbury
• Erscheinungstermin: 18. August 2016
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780993040764
• Artikelnr.: 47392207

Autorenporträt

Defra statistics show that despite killing thousands of badgers, the number of cattle slaughtered for TB continues to rise both in and around the cull zones. We could kill every badger in England and remove them in parts of the country where they have lived for over half a million years and TB would still be present in the national cattle herd.

There is now evidence that badgers actively avoid cattle in pastures and farmyards, and cattle avoid feeding on grass where badgers urinate or defecate, therefore making the likelihood of badgers passing on TB to cattle within the farming environment is so low it is impossible to distinguish it from any other potential environmental vector, including the cattle themselves.

The Government has demonised badgers for political purposes and is now killing them - at huge cost to the taxpayer - as a political fig leaf to the farming lobby, to mask failures going back more than 40 years in the management of bovine TB in cattle.

The only effective way to reduce bovine TB is to follow the approach of the Welsh government, which is to introduce annual TB testing for all cattle, making use of both the TB skin test and the gamma interferon blood test to better detect TB in cattle. This needs to be combined with tighter cattle movement controls and bio security at the farm gate, including tighter controls over the use of slurry, which can spread TB bacteria.

New TB incidents in the Welsh herd are down by 14 per cent over the past 12 months, and 94 per cent are now free of TB - and no badgers were killed.

It's time to stop playing the "badger blame game" and introduce a bovine TB control policy that is good for farmers, taxpayers and the future of our precious badgers.

Taken from an article by Dominic Dyer at independent.co.uk.