There are renewed calls on the government to end the Department of Agriculture’s cruel badger cull after a study found that a vaccine “could be a highly effective means of reducing the incidence of tuberculosis (TB) in badger populations.”
Read the report in Agriland today which contains more details about the findings of the 3-year Department-funded study https://agriland.ie/farming-news/bcg-vaccination-of-badgers-could-be-highly-effective-in-reducing-tb-incidence/
Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue is being urged to now end the snaring of Irish badgers. An estimated 120,000 badgers have been killed by the Department of Agriculture since 1984, including more than 60,000 in the past decade https://www.kildarestreet.com/wrans/?id=2020-07-30a.2534
The assault on this supposedly protected species takes place under licence from the National Parks and Wildlife Service and is part of the so-called bovine TB Eradication Scheme - a failed and discredited operation that has been described as "slaughter masquerading as science".
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."
According to the Irish Wildlife Trust, which is opposed to the cull: "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 ALERTS
Urge the Minister for Agriculture to show compassion and permanently end the cruel badger snaring operation.
Charlie McConalogue
Minister for Agriculture
Tel: (01) 618 3199
Email: charlie.mcconalogue@oireachtas.ie
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CharlieMcConalogue
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/@McConalogue
Appeal to the Heritage Minister and the National Parks and Wildlife Service to stop licensing the snaring and killing of thousands of badgers as part of a cruel and discredited TB eradication scheme.
Minister Darragh O’Brien (Fianna Fail, Dublin Fingal)
Tel: (01) 618 3802 OR (086) 251 9893
Email: darragh.obrien@oireachtas.ie; minister@housing.gov.ie; natureconservation@housing.gov.ie; WildlifeLicence@housing.gov.ie
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DarraghOBrienTD
Twitter: http://twitter.com/DarraghOBrienTD
Watch a video showing a badger being rescued from a Department snare
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAhoGV13uvc