“TB or not TB: The relentless pursuit of badgers (Bovine Tuberculosis scapegoats) not only squanders taxpayer money but distracts from the solutions that lie within the farmyard, not the badger sett” - Read John Tierney’s letter to the editor in the Irish Examiner...
Targeting badgers
Irish Examiner, 3 February 2025
TB or not TB, that was the question answered in 2024 with €100.616m of taxpayers’ money.
That amount was spent on The National Bovine Tuberculosis (TB) Eradication Programme, which aims to eliminate this disease from the national cattle herd.
Ireland’s first bovine TB (bTB) eradication programme was started as far back as 1950 and became compulsory throughout the country by 1962.
In keeping with a good Shakespearian play, a villain has been identified in this ongoing rural drama. The badger has been accused of being central to the spread of bTB.
Farming and government representatives engage in anti-badger misinformation devoid of scientific merit or understanding of badger behaviour.
The snaring of badgers is another wire-based strand of the bTB eradication programme. Each year badgers are snared and shot under licence shamefully issued by the Department of Heritage’s National Parks and Wildlife Service.
This killing takes place even though the majority of badgers (80%) cruelly snared and shot by department contractors and later tested for bTB were found to not have the disease.
The killing of badgers at the behest of the Department of Agriculture is a State-approved brutal pogrom against badgers.
When it is traffic-sign clear that killing badgers by snare/rifle will not eradicate or contain bTB, those with a skin in the disease game persist in walking the cul-de-sac badger trail.
Money and research studies have tracked the ebb and flow of bTB on Irish farms. In 2025, the disease has cemented itself into the rural environment with an acceptance that a bTB eradication policy is futile and that a containment policy is best practice.
A scientific, effective, and humane bTB control strategy that is cattle-based would eliminate any reason to kill badgers.
The relentless pursuit of this bTB scapegoat not only squanders taxpayer money but distracts from the solutions that lie within the farmyard, not the badger sett.
John Tierney, PO Box 4734, Dublin 1
ACTION ALERT
Urge the Minister for Agriculture to permanently end the cruel badger snaring operation.
Martin Heydon TD
Minister for Agriculture
Tel: 01-618 3017
Email: minister@agriculture.gov.ie; martin.heydon@oireachtas.ie
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/martinheydonfg
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/martinheydonfg
SEE ALSO
Irish Dept of Agriculture sought up to 50,000 badger snares
https://banbloodsports.wordpress.com/2023/07/22/irish-dept-of-agriculture-sought-up-to-50000-badger-snares/
1000s of snared badgers killed by gunshot or barbiturates
https://banbloodsports.wordpress.com/2023/06/07/1000s-of-snared-badgers-killed-by-gunshot-or-barbiturates/
5,258 badgers SNARED and KILLED by Department of Agriculture in 2022
https://banbloodsports.wordpress.com/2023/05/23/5258-badgers-snared-and-killed-by-department-of-agriculture-in-2022/
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/
3,758 badgers SNARED and KILLED by Dept so far in 2023
https://banbloodsports.wordpress.com/2023/10/25/3758-badgers-snared-and-killed-by-dept-so-far-in-2023/