“We were very surprised and concerned to hear about the Minister’s plans for a proposed badger removal trial, as at no time was it mentioned during our recent meetings with DARD officials. We are disappointed with the department’s lack of transparency, considering we are a key stakeholder," said Andrew Upton, Director of Nature Conservation at the Ulster Wildlife Trust.
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He added, “DARD will have to apply to the Department of the Environment for a licence to remove and kill badgers, as they are a protected species. The Ulster Wildlife Trust will therefore be lobbying Minister Sammy Wilson to ask that he does not approve any licence request for this trial.”
“Evidence from similar badger removal trials conducted in Britain clearly shows that there is no justification for culling badgers and that it is neither a cost-efficient nor an effective way of dealing with TB eradication.
A badger removal trial may actually make the situation worse, whereby culling may cause badgers to move beyond their normal social boundaries and therefore lead to further spread of the disease,” he said.
Andrew continued: “Whilst we agree with the holistic approach taken by the Minister’s department in dealing with the problem of TB, the strategy focuses largely on the issue of TB in the wildlife reservoir and does not fully address the main issue of improving the ability to diagnose the disease in cattle.
The Ulster Wildlife Trust does not support any form of badger cull in Northern Ireland. Rather, we believe the Minister’s emphasis should be on the improving the accuracy of the TB test for cattle, tightening biosecurity measures and investing resources into these, instead of using the badger as a scapegoat.
“We know that our members and the general public would be outraged if this badger removal trial goes ahead and we are appealing to DARD to be open about its proposed plans and to throw its weight behind developing and improving the current TB programme to deal with this disease. A back door badger cull is simply not the answer,” he said.
10 December 2008
