Dame Angela Eagle has responded to our petition calling for an immediate halt to the final badger cull in Cumbria, Area 73. Her letter is polite. It acknowledges that many people find the killing of badgers deeply upsetting. It repeats Labour’s manifesto commitment to end the cull. It speaks of a new course in the fight against bovine TB. But the cull continues. After more than 250,000 badgers have been killed over the past decade, the central question remains unanswered. Where is the clear evidence that this policy worked? The Minister explains that the final licence in Cumbria will be subject to annual review before any decision is taken on its continuation in 2026. That may sound reassuring. It is not an end. It is not a suspension. It is simply a continuation under softer language. If a policy has resulted in a quarter of a million wild animals being shot and still cannot demonstrate clear success, the burden of proof no longer lies with those calling for it to stop. It lies with government to justify why it should continue. The letter also makes clear that Defra is scaling up badger vaccination, stating that studies show it is effective in controlling disease in badgers. The wording matters. Effective in badgers is not the same thing as reducing TB in cattle. The question has always been whether targeting badgers meaningfully reduces disease in cattle herds. There is still no clear, large scale evidence that widespread badger vaccination leads to measurable reductions in cattle TB breakdowns. Vaccination may sound kinder than culling, but if it keeps wildlife at the centre of the blame narrative, it does not fix the underlying problem. The Minister also refers to whole genome sequencing evidence and says that transmission runs both ways between cattle and badgers. Of course it can. Infection can pass between species. No one is denying that. But showing that disease can move between cattle and badgers is not the same thing as proving that badgers are driving the epidemic. Genetic studies can show that animals share similar strains of TB. They can suggest that infection has moved between species at some point. What they do not clearly show is how much of the ongoing crisis is actually being caused by badgers rather than by cattle infecting each other. That distinction matters. Because if the main engine of this epidemic sits within cattle farming systems, then targeting wildlife will never solve it. Even within the scientific literature, estimates vary. Different studies reach different conclusions. Many include important caveats. That is the reality of a complex disease. But it means this evidence cannot simply be treated as definitive justification for killing or vaccinating wildlife on a national scale. For over a decade, badgers have been cast as the villain in a story that is fundamentally about intensive cattle farming. About high density herds. About cattle movements. About testing failures. About an industry that expands and intensifies while wildlife is blamed for the consequences. We do not accept that framing. Our position is clear. Bovine TB is rooted in the structure of animal farming itself. Badgers have been scapegoated to protect a powerful industry. This is not about finding a middle ground between culling and vaccination. It is about ending the narrative that wildlife must suffer to prop up a farming system that refuses to confront its own structural failures. That is why we are continuing to push to end the badger blame game completely. We recently released a powerful new animation narrated by the brilliant Chris Packham, setting out the case plainly and unapologetically. The film makes one thing clear. This crisis did not begin with badgers. It began with cattle farming. And badgers have paid the price. More than 250,000 of them.  The government says wildlife measures are only a small part of the broader strategy. If that is truly the case, then ending the final cull should not be difficult. If wildlife is not central, stop targeting wildlife. What we have seen for twelve years is distraction. A political choice to focus on wild animals rather than confront the uncomfortable realities of intensive animal agriculture. Replacing culling with vaccination while keeping wildlife in the frame risks continuing that distraction. Labour promised to end the cull. The public expects clarity. An annual review is not clarity. It is hesitation. If the government truly wants to chart a new course, it should halt the final Cumbria cull immediately, remove wildlife from the centre of this debate, and confront the real driver of bovine TB head on. We will continue to campaign. We will continue to speak plainly. And we will continue to challenge the idea that killing or medicating wildlife is the answer to a crisis created by industrial farming. The badger blame game must end. Not softened. Not rebranded. Ended. Support the ongoing fight to protect BadgersWant to help fund our work? You can pick up a limited edition Badger pin badge today (designed by talented animator Ben Sinclair from Fire Lily Studio) and help power our campaigning.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment