What Is The Badger Cull?

This is the second post of the series I am currently doing about questions relating to the recent topics of the wildlife world.
Badger

What is the badger cull?

The Badger Cull (destruction or killing of Badgers) which has been enforced by the Government, is carried out due to the problem of TB, a disease of cattle that can be spread by Badgers. This has been a very relevant problem over the last few years, with campaigners and well known wildlife organisations against the cull and making their views heard.

The Cull is where licensed shooters go out, mainly at night or dusk as Badgers are nocturnal and bait and shoot the Badgers or search over an area with a spotlight and rifle. To be humane the Badger as to be killed with one shot to insure a Badger is not left injured, this sometimes does not happen.

Why is the cull carried out?

The cull is carried out to stop the spread of the infectious disease Bovine Tuberculosis (TB) that affects Cows, presenting a big problem for the cattle industry which in result causes financial and personal hardship for farmers. TB can also infect Deer and other mammals.

Bovine TB can be transmitted from cattle to cattle, Badgers to cattle and cattle to Badgers. Interestingly most cases are when cattle pass the disease onto each other.

Alternatives

 In my opinion I think that using the Badger vaccine to battle the disease is a much more sensible idea. This has been shown to have much better results and reduce the number of TB infected Badgers.

For more information follow these links:

http://www.rspca.org.uk/getinvolved/campaign/badgers

www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22614350

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