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Independent TD Verona Murphy has ridiculously claimed that if badgers are not culled, they will pose a road safety risk.
In an RTE News report (4 May 2023), it was revealed that 5,000 badgers were cruelly snared and killed by the Department of Agriculture last year as part of its ongoing, failed TB Eradication scheme.
Verona Murphy expressed support for the continuation of the cruel cull which has left an estimated 120,000 badgers dead since 1984.
RTE News reported that "Independent TD Verona Murphy said she had never seen as many dead badgers on the roads.”
She was quoted as saying: “If we do not continue with culling and we have an overrun of badgers, they are going to pose a road safety risk just like deer are. It's not just about welfare or TB it's now also about road safety." https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2023/0504/1380729-badger-cull/
Previously, Verona Murphy has shamefully expressed support for hare coursing, horse racing, greyhound racing and pheasant shooting.
The assault on the supposedly protected badger species takes place under licence from the National Parks and Wildlife Service. The cull has been condemned 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 also 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."
It emerged in 2021, that the vast majority of the badgers cruelly snared and killed by the Department of Agriculture and later tested for TB were found to NOT have the disease.
Responding to a Dail Question from Paul Murphy TD at the time, Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue said that the killing of all the snared badgers is cheaper than identifying those who are negative or positive – “resource allocation concentrates on removing badgers (between 5,000 and 7,000 per annum in recent years) rather than the expensive test for evidence of the presence of M bovis”.
SEE ALSO
Most badgers who were killed and tested did NOT have TB
https://banbloodsports.wordpress.com/2021/09/29/most-badgers-who-were-killed-and-tested-did-not-have-tb/
Watch a video showing a badger being rescued from a Department snare
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAhoGV13uvc
ACTION ALERT
Don't support politicians who support animal cruelty.
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 or 01 607 2000
Email: minister@agriculture.gov.ie; 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.
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