The maligned and persecuted badger deserves complete protection under Irish law, not this barbaric slaughter masquerading as science - Read John Fitzgerald's Letter to the Editor in today's Irish Times...
Time to protect the badger
Irish Times 10 January 2019
Sir, – The badger is a jewel in the crown of Ireland’s wildlife heritage, a shy nocturnal creature with its distinctive white and black striped head and short sturdy legs. It enhances our natural environment and most rural dwellers haven’t a bad word to say about it. Badger-baiting, where dogs are pitted against the animal for “sport”, is illegal, and anyone with knowledge of the activity can contact the Garda Síochána.
Unfortunately, “respectable” people also threaten the welfare and conservation status of the badger. Since 1984 an estimated 120,000 badgers have been snared and killed by the Department of Agriculture as part of the discredited bovine TB eradication scheme.
Thousands of wire snares are laid across Ireland each night, quietly and discreetly, and many of these are just as quietly and discreetly removed by landowners, including farmers, who object to their presence on private property.
The method of capture is far from humane: the snare holds a badger until someone arrives a few hours later to shoot the animal. Many snared badgers strangle to death in their vain attempt to free themselves. When nursing female badgers are strangled or shot, their cubs are left to starve underground.
In addition to being cruel, this practice has been shown by recent findings to be ineffective in the war against bovine TB. Over 95,000 people have already signed an online petition calling on the Minister for Agriculture to end badger snaring.
The maligned and persecuted badger deserves complete protection under Irish law, not this barbaric slaughter masquerading as science. – Yours, etc,
John Fitzgerald,
Callan, Co Kilkenny
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/time-to-protect-the-badger-1.3752701
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ICABS Action Alert
Appeal to the Agriculture Minister to suspend the cruel badger snaring. 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". Tell him that research has shown that "badger culling apparently has the capacity to increase badger-to-badger transmission of infection, potentially undermining anticipated reductions in badger-to-cattle transmission."
Minister Michael Creed
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 write to the Minister for Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht Affairs and to 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