Is it badgers that cause the spread of TB in cattle, or is it just about any wild animal? Obviously, to a farmer, the life and health of his/her livestock is more valuable than any other beast – after all, the capitalist system ensures that the farmer’s survival depends on their capacity to produce, produce, produce and make profits or be forced to pack it in and end up being branded a “scrounger” on benefits.
Having said that, there were too few farmers willing to fork out for licences to exterminate all the badgers on their land to make the Government’s planned mass-extermination pilot programme in Gloucestershire cost effective last year. Plus it was evident that groups such as Gloucestershire Against Badger Shooting (GABS) weren’t going to make the job of the hired death squads plain sailing either…
But, despite all reason going against it – as well as humanity – the Government intends to push ahead with its killing spree of our black-and-white friends in the summer. So we have several months in which to persuade Defra and the National Farmers’ Union to change their minds.
They still need to be persuaded that perhaps the course of action decided by the Welsh Assembly just miles away from the planned cull zone (which stretches from the Forest of Dean to Herefordshire and Worcestershire) might be better all round? In Wales, badgers are being vaccinated against TB rather than blown away with shotguns. The NFU and Defra for some reason seem loath to help farmers out with biosecurity measures – such as keeping troughs clean regularly to stop infected badger slobber from being passed on to cows so easily…
So far, the guns are winning… so we and they have a fight on their hands.
First stop, on February 27, is outside the NFU conference at the International Convention Centre (ICC) in Birmingham from 9.30am… bring the noise (such as vuvuzelas) to raise the roof!
On April 1, GABS will be running badger walks to identify setts that need to be protected against human murderers…
The cull is due to begin on June 1.
If anyone owns land within the cull zone and wishes to opt out of the killing zone, contact GABS with your postcode and approximate acreage.
See http://www.glosagainstbadgershooting.org/
phone: 07901 522669
email: glosagainstbadgershooting@gmail.com
Or Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GlosABS
Forest of Dean Anarchists 