6,000 badgers are being cruelly snared and killed every year by the Department of Agriculture. The continued killing of the supposedly protected species was confirmed this week by Agriculture Minister Michael Creed.

Responding to a Dail Question from Dublin Central politician Maureen O'Sullivan TD, Minister Creed said that a badger vaccination programme "will be expanded incrementally to all parts of the country during the 2018-2022 period and it is anticipated that the rate of badger removal [i.e. snaring/killing] will reduce from the present circa 6,000 badgers per year to less than 1,000 in 4-5 years’ time."

In her Dail Question, Deputy O'Sullivan highlighted that [since 1984] an estimated 120,000 badgers have been snared and killed by the Department's TB Eradication Scheme - a failed and discredited operation that has been described as "slaughter masquerading as science". The snaring takes place under licence from the National Parks and Wildlife Service, which also licenses barbaric hare coursing - a bloodsport causing terror, injury and death to another "protected" species - the Irish Hare.

Bernie Barrett of Badger Watch Ireland describes how badgers suffer under the Department’s scheme: "The method of capture is a barbaric wire snare which holds the helpless badger in excruciating pain until it is dispatched by gunshot. That’s provided the animal has not agonisingly strangled itself beforehand. When nursing female badgers are snared and shot, their cubs are left to starve to death underground."

The Irish Wildlife Trust has expressed fears that the species is now endangered. The IWT is opposed to the badger cull and states on its website: "Badgers can die over extended periods struggling in these hideous devices while their young starve underground. Not only is it barbaric and unethical, recent findings have shown it to be ineffective in the war on bovine TB. Nobody has ever counted badgers accurately in this country and while it has always been assumed that they are common animals, this can no longer be taken for granted."

ACTION ALERT

Please appeal to the Agriculture Minister to show compassion and suspend the cruel badger snaring scheme. Remind the Minister that the badger is a protected species in Ireland and that the Animal Health and Welfare Act, for which he is responsible, clearly states: "A person shall not do, or fail to do, anything or cause or permit anything to be done to an animal that causes unnecessary suffering to, or endanger the health or welfare of, an animal".

Michael Creed TD
Minister for Agriculture
Kildare Street, Dublin 2.
Email: michael.creed@oir.ie
Tel: +353 (0)1-607 2000 or LoCall 1890-200510.
Fax: +353 (0)1-661 1013.
Leave a comment on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michaelcreedtd
Tweet to: @creedcnw

Please contact the Minister for Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht Affairs and the National Parks and Wildlife Service. Remind them that the Wildlife Act, for which they are responsible, lists the badger as a protected species. Demand that they stop licensing the snaring and killing of thousands of badgers as part of a cruel and discredited TB eradication scheme.

Minister Josepha Madigan
Minister for Culture, Heritage & the Gaeltacht
Phone: +353 (0)1 631 3800
Email: josepha.madigan@oireachtas.ie
Leave a comment on Facebook: https://facebook.com/JosephaMadiganFG
Tweet to: @josephamadigan

Director, Licensing Unit
National Parks and Wildlife Service
7 Ely Place, Dublin 2
Email: wildlifelicence@ahg.gov.ie
Tel: +353 (0)1-888 3214

DAIL QUESTION AND ANSWER
10/10/2018

Maureen O'Sullivan T.D. (Independent, Dublin Central): To ask the Minister for Agriculture; Food and the Marine if a badger vaccination programme announced earlier in 2018 has commenced; and his plans to end the culling of badgers which has caused an estimated 120,000 deaths to date.

Minister Michael Creed: Field trials testing the effectiveness of badger vaccination as an alternative to removal were conducted from 2014 to 2017 in areas where the wildlife program had been running in excess of 5 years and where local densities of badgers were considered low enough to be suitable candidates for vaccination with BCG. The findings confirmed that vaccination of badgers can play a role in reducing the level of infection in cattle. From January 2018 the formal vaccination programme commenced in the areas which formed part of the field trials, i.e. in parts of counties Monaghan, Longford, Galway, Tipperary, Waterford, Kilkenny, Cork and in all of Louth. Badgers in a vaccination area will be captured/vaccinated/released instead of being captured/culled. The vaccination program will continue on an annual basis, so each year’s births in vaccination areas will be vaccinated as they are captured. The vaccination area will be expanded incrementally to all parts of the country during the 2018-2022 period and it is anticipated that the rate of badger removal will reduce from the present c.6000 badgers per year to less than 1,000 in c.4-5 years’ time.