Badger culling will end in England by 2029, the government has said.
Some culls under existing licences will continue until 2026, according to sources at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), but it is highly unlikely any new ones will be granted.
The National Farmers’ Union has been lobbying government to keep the badger cull until there is definitive proof bovine tuberculosis (bTB) can be stopped without killing badgers.
However, Defra ministers have said not enough research has been done in recent years to find out whether badgers carry the virus.
I’ve not been keeping up with this, because I’m a city type, but this paragraph seems absolutely wild to me.
It will also create a badger vaccination taskforce and set up a scientific survey to find out whether wild badgers are carrying bTB.
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a scientific survey to find out whether wild badgers are carrying bTB.
It was this bit that really threw me. I mean, have we been killing all these badgers for years and we don’t actually know if they are carrying Bovine TB?!
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Windsor Davies badger, Tasmin Archer badger, Gareth Southgate badger…. All done.
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2029? There’ll be none left by then.
I wonder if this will cause an issue with the supply of badger hair for traditional wetshaving brushes. Lots of them are badger hair and I’d guess they get at least some of the hair from sanctioned culls like this.
