CHANGE OF DIRECTION?

There seems to be movement away from the issue of Bovine TB (which I thought was the reason for the cull) to a need to control rising badger numbers.

An interesting theme from the pro-cull lobby is the reference to the badger being an apex predator with nothing to control its numbers. Do these people making these claims drive around with their eyes shut?

THE MAGIC OF BADGERS

BADGER & CHILD INTERACTION

Further to my attempts to strengthen the anti-cull campaign, I’ve uploaded some pictures taken last year of the local family of badgers that pay visits to my back garden.

The family arrive for supper

This family of badgers live in a sett a few streets away and often visited the garden to dig up earthworms – their favourite food. After some time, I started leaving out food for them and eventually the visitors increased after the arrival of two cubs.

DORSET’S KILLING FIELDS

From the letters page of the Bournemouth Echo (10th May 2013)

http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/yoursay/letterstotheeditor/10411809.Badgers_cull_is_a_big_mistake/

I would like to inform wildlife-loving readers of the Daily Echo of the government’s plans to use Dorset as a ‘reserve’ in their planned cull of badgers.

Many may have believed the plans to slaughter thousands of badgers had been consigned to the scrapheap but this isn’t the case; it is set to begin in earnest in June, to be trialled in Gloucestershire and Somerset.

THYLACINES & BADGERS: MANKIND’S SCAPEGOATS?

Written in response to the forthcoming badger cull in the UK (20th April 2013)

On September 12^th 1803 the British settled in Tasmania. Over the following decades as more and more settlers arrived, fears of the strange beasts that inhabited their exotic new home quickly spread.

Tall tales, hysteria and superstition saw the thylacine – or Tasmanian tiger – the island’s largest predator, branded as something to be exterminated.

By 1820, Hobart was the second largest town in Australia and shifted its industry away from whaling towards farming.

As the new farmers rapidly cleared and altered the natural environment they viewed the indigenous creatures (and people) merely as an inconvenience to be swept away.