Iwan

I like badgers, incredibly useful animals.

[Davey]

You should use that pent up aggretion on something more useful... like... culling the badgers that are in your garden, you've got the upper hand already! Just think it would be the last thing they would suspect! 1 minute your feeding them tastey treats next they are wriggling around in a burlap sack.

OllyK

What housing crisis? Oh the one where everybody seems to think they have some god given right to own their own property and expect the goverment to sort things out when they can't afford one on their minimum wage, is that the one?

[Davey]

Its not the people that want to own their property that are a problem its the people who want to one 2 or more

There are not enough houses fullstop, not just 'private owned'.. It doesn't help that the immigration legislation in this country is a complete joke just to appease the sandal wearing, tree hugging do gooders who have about as much understanding about global stability as a field mouse. But then again just about every problem in this country can be attributed back to the sandal wearing do gooders!

Dave T-S

Ah, the good old SN reasoned debate


I wonder how many of the fluffy bunny brigade spouting informatively about the subject have actually read the full 287 page ISG report?

No connection between badgers and bovine TB? P.3 of the report - "badgers are clearly a source of cattle TB"

Incidence of BTB is increasing - 2677 new outbreaks in the year to August, up year by year.

The report is the results of a 10 year study by respected scientists.

No TB in culled badgers? Table 4.8 of the report - 16.67% of the RBCT culled badgers were infected with M.bovis

Keep the misinformation coming chaps

StickyMicky

mushroom, mushroom

OllyK

Abdabz

Rather than culling innocent little cutey furry badgery lovely badgers, why not innoculate the pitiful bovines instead?
Seems a little harsh to kill innocent cutey furry badgery lovely badgers for minding their own business.
Why not cull the farmers for not protecting their cattle properly? Or cull the vet lab workers for not coming up with a foolproof free innoculation or cure?

Cull cull cull

[Davey]

Because the cow is just gonna get slaughtered anyway normally

Leslie

So much conflicting information that it is diffiocult to know what side to come down on.

I have seen Government scientists talking absolute twaddle in the past before now too! Just saying what they were required to to "fit in"

Whatever happens, I would hate the badger to become yet another extinct animal in this country.

Les

SJ_Skyline

firesorter

" badgers! we dont need no stinking badgers!"

Dave T-S

Because after years of work there isn't even a vaccine in trials, never mind commercially available

Unlikely. It isn't definitive statistically, but it appears after the 10 year study that badger numbers have increased after culling. Just like the fox after the hunting ban

Leslie

Are you saying then that badgers numbers will increase after culling but that fox numbers increased after the culling(hunting) stopped?

Les

Abdabz

What would happen to Harry Hills badger parade?

rgv_stu

kill badgers and foxes both unwanted vermin who do no good at all (bit like chavs i suppose)

noobyscooby

Badgers spread TB.

It is only because people think of them in the nice friendly "Brock the Badger" sort of way that DEFRA has not been brave enough to cull them.

Farmers deal with them in their own way where they can but ont in big enough numbers. Indeed some farmers have given up keeping livestock purely because their cattle kept getting re-infected by protected badgers.

I certainly would not encourage badgers into my garden especially if I had children.

TB was, until recently, all but eradicated in the UK, but it is now one of the fastest growing diseases again brought in by some of the workers from the former Soviet bloc countries [Poland Romania, Hungary, etc], cruise line crewmen from the Far East [although they have to have chest x-rays before being flown to meet the liner many get a fit "ringer" to go for the x-ray] and, still endemic in the UK countryside, badgers.

noobyscooby

There are more foxes being killed now than before the hunting ban.

blockmonke@fsmail.net

Dancing Badger Badger Badger.com! The Original!

Simon 69

Quality

LG John

Same old, same old. Badgers are important and endangered we must protect them. Now, we must kill them

Global warming is happening and is man made, we must make changes, we must do this, we must do that........<see where I'm going with this?>

Gilesdwrc

Badgers spread TB FACT. I've sent the results with my own eyes, on the family farm. They also kill lambs. However i wouldn't like to see total extermination, just in the appropriate areas. Like everywhere outside the M25 and M60

Jamie,
Feed the greasy buggers if you want, in fact go give 'em a hug and see how fingers you come back with. Cuddly-Wuddly my ****.

noobyscooby

I've hit badgers twice in the car - God, they're solid and can do a lot of damage! Unlike 2 cats, 1 squirrel, 1 crow [that takes some doing I can tell you], 6 cyclists [when living in Oxford], numerous pheasants [though one did come through the windscreen], several pigeons, lots of rabbits and a Jack Russell that all met their doom [well I had to go backwards and forwards over one of the cats to finish it off properly - that's the problem with wide low profiles, the weight is too spread]. And all the cyclists survived, damnit!

[Davey]

Saw a dead badger on the A4 this morning.. Looked like a fat little porker! Obviously couldnt run fast enough accross the road

Dave T-S

Les
The report says that badger numbers appeared to have increased since the cull, but acknowledges that badgers live in family groups and are territorial, and outside badgers may have moved in when badgers are removed. Whilst there are ways of checking badger numbers (bait marking being the main one) it is an inexact science.

The badger rescue groups (who of course are pro badger) recognise that most badger casualties are roadkill victims anyway so I expect the badger supporters on here will be giving up their cars forthwith and walking so they do not run the risk of running one over

The proposed badger cull is not a nationwide mass extermination program but the suggestion is localised culls in the most heavily affected areas.

Re foxes - hunting is an inefficient way to control them whatever the hunts may say (and I am neither pro or anti hunt). Let me nail my colours to the mast and say I live in a rural area and I am a vermin shooter so will shoot birds, rabbits, grey squirrels, foxes etc that are on the legitimate quarry list (and they are on there for a reason). We also keep chickens, ducks, sheep and are in the process of getting some cows so I have an interest in predator and disease control. Many of my friends are shooters and our local area is absolutely riddled with foxes despite best efforts to shoot them. I have also seen a sharp increase in fox sightings round our property since our ducks arrived. Just a coincidence I have set up a deer stalking high seat in a tree that overlooks our duck pond

[Davey]

Ewwwwwww I got an infraction for having an opinion.. I better stop that right now Ja Voll!

dpb

ill bet nu labia an Flash will give the go ahead on this one since the whole industry is in crisis - purley to keep their ratings up you understand

Its fairly amazing to me anyway that ive never seen a badger - and ive spent at least 1/2 my life in the country .

Seems absolutly amazing that theryre is still debate on the transfer of disease - i mean it either happens or it dont .

davey21wagon

its all well and good til u hit a badger with ur bumper u ll not feel so happy about them then

plus hope they did get ur women from the apprentice.

dpb

Leslie

Thanks for the explanation, I was a bit confused but understand what you meant now.

Les