Rebuke for minister over failed badger
cull
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 10 2001
BY VALERIE ELLIOTT, COUNTRYSIDE
EDITOR
NICK BROWN, the Agriculture Minister, will be
reprimanded by MPs today for failing to set up an alternative way of
dealing with tuberculosis in cattle other than killing badgers.
MPs will urge him to find another solution after failing to be
convinced that the badger cull started two years ago will prove a
definitive link with TB in cattle.
Badger killing is under way in seven areas of the South West and
West Country, where there is a high incidence of bovine TB, in an
attempt to prove that badgers are the main cause of the disease in
cattle. So far more than 2,000 badgers have been killed, but the
incidence of TB in cattle is growing and 30,000 infected cattle have
been slaughtered in the past four years.
Tensions are running so high that even the National Farmers’
Union has pulled out of the Government’s TB forum because it is
exasperated by the slow progress of the cull.
Mr Brown will be sharply reprimanded by MPs today.
Concerns over the progress of the trials are set out in a report
from the Commons Agriculture Select Committee. MPs now do not expect
any conclusions from scientific data until 2004, and are anxious
about the plight of farmers. “It is the responsibility of ministers
to make the ultimate decisions and we believe this process must be
put in train now and not delayed until the crisis of no clear
results from such a controversial programme is upon us,” the report
says.
“This delay puts even greater pressure on those farmers whose
support for the trial is vital to its success, but whose sense of
desperation is growing as bovine TB in cattle continues to spread.”
David Curry, Tory MP for Skipton and Ripon and the chairman of
the committee, yesterday made clear that MPs believed the trials
should continue, but admitted he was unsure that they would produce
robust results.
“If the results are inconclusive what happens then? The Ministry
of Agriculture really must be getting on with this and putting more
focus on the problems before farmers take the law into their own
hands and shoot or gas badgers.”
Mr Curry said the Ministry of Agriculture should set up another
study looking at animal husbandry techniques, including cattle
hygiene, to reduce the risks of TB in cattle.
He also called on the Government to speed up work on its survey
of badgers run over on the roads. These were being tested for TB by
state vets but work had been delayed because staff had been
transferred to deal with the outbreak of classical swine fever.
Mr Curry said that he also wanted more research on a vaccine for
cattle against the disease. “We really must be prepared for
eventualities. Every time we ask about a vaccine the Government says
about 10 or 15 years, well they have been saying that for a very
long time.”
The National Federation of Badger Groups yesterday said that the
report was a “damning critique” of the Government’s policy. Dr
Elaine King, the federation’s director, said she was delighted that
MPs had highlighted the Government’s failure to look beyond badger
culling.
She accused the Government of putting the trials before animal
welfare standards, and criticised the Ministry of Agriculture for
setting traps this month for badgers in west Cornwall and Wiltshire.
“Most badger cubs are born this month and they really should not be
killing them this month, putting cubs at risk of losing their
mother.”
The National Farmers’ Union yesterday criticised MPs for “skating
over” the problems suffered by farmers. Ben Gill, its president,
said that farmers could not wait until 2004 for answers or further
measures. Copyright 2001 Times Newspapers Ltd.
For more information, click the following link:
|
