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The government has given the go ahead for badgers to be culled in England this autumn, as part of measures to protect cattle from tuberculosis.



As many as 100,000 badgers could be shot by trained marksmen if the proposals in two pilot zones in the South West are extended across the country.

Scientific evidence has shown that bovine TB can be transmitted from cattle to cattle; from badgers to cattle and cattle to badgers; and from badger to badger. Badgers are thought to pass on the disease to cattle through their urine, faeces or through droplet infection, in the farmyard or in cattle pastures. However, it is not clear how big a role badgers play in the spread of bovine TB since the cows can also pass the disease on to other members of the herd.

There is a vaccine for badgers - the BCG jab, which has been used by a number of wildlife and conservation bodies in England, including the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, the RSPB, the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and the National Trust.

Badger vaccination is also underway in Wales, and there are plans to introduce it in Northern Ireland.

According to the Food, Environment and Research Agency (Fera): "Vaccinating badgers is a risk reduction measure. It reduces the risk of badgers catching TB, resulting in fewer infected badgers. This in turn may reduce the risk of transmission from badgers to cattle."

Cattle can also be vaccinated with the BCG vaccine. However, vaccination of cattle against TB is currently prohibited by EU legislation, mainly because BCG vaccination of cattle can interfere with the tuberculin skin test, the main diagnostic test for TB. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19637936]
Apparently it's quite a controversy over in "your neck of the woods":

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A researcher who studied their role in popular culture has warned that politicians have not grasped the true nature of the cull controversy.

Dr Angela Cassidy from Imperial College London researched discourse on badgers from the end of the 18th Century.

She told BBC News that they have consistently divided opinion, with farmers wanting rid of them and animal lovers seeking to protect them.

Dr Cassidy said that bombarding people with science about TB in the animals would fail, as the debate was really about emotions and values.

"The sides have a very different understanding of what the countryside is for and how we should treat animals," she said.

"That's why I think one of the reasons why the focus on the evidence isn't getting us that far is because it can be interpreted in different ways and what we have to acknowledge is that there are different values going on, and this is a very political debate."

Pest or pet?

A Defra source told BBC News that some civil servants working on the badger issue acknowledged that people had very different views of whether farmers had a right to control badgers, or whether wildlife was in some way "owned" by everyone.

Dr Cassidy discovered a divide stretching more than 200 years in the columns of The Times.

"Every so often I found these little flurries of correspondence between people arguing whether badgers were pests or likeable animals. This sort of thread pops up every 20 or 30 years.

"There's a link consistently about how people were talking about badgers then and now. When people were talking about liking badgers they would talk about them being clean domestic animals, very houseproud and family-oriented.

"People not liking badgers talked about them being dirty and disruptive. It's the same now." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19870587]
I didn't know there was a "cull" in the U.K., but it doesn't surprise me, as humans and animals coming into conflict usually ends up with the animals being "culled".

The memory that made me smile when I saw the story?

I can't tell you why, but that made me giggle like crazy the first time I saw it years ago. Apparently I wasn't the only ones, as numerous takeoff versions have been on YouTube since then.

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The badger is renowned for its power, tenacity, and irascible temperament. Few animals care to tangle with an enraged badger. One badger even attacked a tractor that inadvertently ran over its den entrance!

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When backed into a corner by an overzealous observer, most kinds of wildlife will go the other direction. There are two animals, however, that can pretty much be counted on to violate this rule--the northern water snake and the badger. Both possess a vile temperament and, more often than not, will come straight toward you--very fast and very mad.

No one (at least those in their right mind) sticks around to mess with the business end of an irritated badger. Other animals don't fool with the critter either, making the badger one of the few species with virtually no natural enemies.

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