Government refuses to release badger cull report

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Government refuses to release badger cull report
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Tavascarow

Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall

Posted: Mon Nov 02, 15 7:11 pm Post subject: Government refuses to release badger cull report

Government refuses to release report into whether badger cull is a waste of money.

Quote:

The Government has blocked the release of a report into whether its badger cull is a waste of money.

The major analysis, held by the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, is being kept from the public despite requests for its release under transparency rules.

The Badger Trust, an animal welfare charity, asked the department to disclose the Departmentï¿½s cost benefit analysis of cull pilots undertaken in 2013 and 2014.
The analysis would show whether officials thought the policy was actually worth the money spent on it.

The Department however refused, arguing that it was ï¿½in the public interestï¿½ not to release the information to the public.

Badger Trust director Dominic Dyer told the Daily Mirror newspaper the report was being kept secret because its findings would likely undermine the Governmentï¿½s policy.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46238
Location: yes

Posted: Tue Nov 03, 15 12:11 am Post subject:

methinks he has mistaken the public for the government,much like many examples of "in the national interest" really meaning in the interests of the gov and/or the elites who control them.

what ever it says we payed for it ,the cattle community deserve to know if culling works or does not work,badgers deserve to carry on doing badger stuff if culling does not work ,alternative measures to control tb need investigation etc etc etc

if it says snuffing badgers works it would be made public .

if it says it is very expensive ,often badly done ,underdone etc etc and has made no difference to infection rates or has made them higher etc etc etc only the people who insisted on it lose by that becoming public.

time for a leak .

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15988

Posted: Tue Nov 03, 15 7:00 am Post subject:
It doesn't make much sense not publishing. If it says it works but is expensive, then it needs to be looked at to make it more effective. If it didn't work, as you say Dpack, the way infection occurs need to investigated.

jettejette

Joined: 01 Jun 2013
Posts: 225

Posted: Thu Nov 05, 15 11:27 pm Post subject:

Not a surprise really! It's all been such a fiasco.
We had two (pet) cows who were shot when one of them reacted to the TB test. When the post mortem report arrived about three months later it said that no TB had been found! When I spoke to our vet about it, he said the results could be skewed by contact with birds with avian TB - not something that can be passed on but if there was some contact with the cow's exterior, it would react.
Ironically, we were in an area which had the first badger cull so there wasn't even a possibiity that they had been infected by badgers.
Since this time I have spoken to others who have had their animals shot, just to find out that there was no trace of TB. But presumeably because they had reacted, and the decision was made to kill them, they would still be incuded in the figures as though they were infected.Which means that reacting to the test is more widespread than the actual desease. No wonder they don't want to publish the resuts of the cull!

Rob R

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 31902
Location: York

Posted: Thu Nov 05, 15 11:41 pm Post subject:

Mistress Rose wrote:

It doesn't make much sense not publishing. If it says it works but is expensive, then it needs to be looked at to make it more effective. If it didn't work, as you say Dpack, the way infection occurs need to investigated.

The only reason I can think of not to publish it is to double bluff. By not publishing everyone is going to think it is bad anyway. I suspect we'll find out eventually.

Ty Gwyn

Joined: 22 Sep 2010
Posts: 4613
Location: Lampeter

Posted: Fri Nov 06, 15 12:07 am Post subject:

Considering one of the TB injections is Avian TB and the other Bovine,i`m not sure what your vet is getting at Jettejette,

But a very large number of cattle that have reacted to the second test have had clean results regarding TB,

I had a test on Tuesday ,returning to check tomorrow,clean herd for the nearly 29yrs i`ve been here,but worried this time,as 2 farms 2 mls down the valley have gone down with TB,one is in the valley bottom,all flat land,not really badger environment,the other is under a heavy wooded bank,and since they have started cutting the forestry down the badgers seem to be coming out in large numbers,the field above has been dug up badly by them,

Here ,i have not seen a badger on or near the farm for at least 15yrs,but they travel in a 3ml radius of their sett,that is the worrying fact,If they are infected.

Rob R

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 31902
Location: York

Posted: Fri Nov 06, 15 12:17 am Post subject:

Ty Gwyn wrote:

Here ,i have not seen a badger on or near the farm for at least 15yrs,but they travel in a 3ml radius of their sett,that is the worrying fact,If they are infected.

It's rare that I see them, could probably count my previous lifetime sightings on one hand but this year I've seen three. Lots of digging activity, too.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15988

Posted: Fri Nov 06, 15 8:23 am Post subject:

Badgers had a dig round our sawdust pile a few weeks ago. There are some grubs that seem to live in there, so suspect they were after them.

The bovine TB test doesn't seem to be very accurate. It seems that it would be better to develop another test rather than kill all the cows that react. As I have said before, I was a reactor to the BCG test, but that was nearly 50 years ago, and I haven't developed TB yet. Even at the time they knew that just showed antibodies, and didn't suggest actual disease, so why are cows different?

Ty Gwyn

Joined: 22 Sep 2010
Posts: 4613
Location: Lampeter

Posted: Fri Nov 06, 15 4:38 pm Post subject:
Another clean test,thank goodness.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46238
Location: yes

Posted: Fri Nov 06, 15 5:01 pm Post subject:

Ty Gwyn wrote:

Another clean test,thank goodness.

that is good news

Tavascarow

Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall

Posted: Fri Nov 06, 15 6:23 pm Post subject:

Ty Gwyn wrote:

Another clean test,thank goodness.

Excellent.

Rob R

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 31902
Location: York

Posted: Fri Nov 06, 15 7:20 pm Post subject:

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15988

Posted: Sat Nov 07, 15 7:43 am Post subject:
Good news. Hope it keeps up.

Tavascarow

Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall

Posted: Thu Nov 12, 15 2:13 pm Post subject:
Badgers, TB and intensive farming

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46238
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Nov 12, 15 5:57 pm Post subject:
much like human tb being mostly a disease of overcrowding and cities. it does indicate that the best way or reducing it might not be snuffing badgers but could be more use of more extensive systems and good stewardship.

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