Plans for badger cull pit farmers against animal rights activists
This article brings us up to speed with progress on this, the most controversial animal welfare issue in the countryside since fox hunting. it explains:
“Under the plans, farmers will be allowed to come together in syndicates to organise culls, at their own expense, over substantial areas of at least 150 squares kilometres, and lasting at least four years. The aim will be to cull at least 70 per cent of the badgers in a given area; the killing will be done by specially trained marksmen with high-powered rifles.
After further discussions on the licensing arrangements over the next few weeks, two pilot schemes next summer will test that the shooting method is effective, humane and safe for the public, and if it is given the go-ahead by an independent panel, widespread culling could begin next year or possibly in 2013.”
Lets hope we can focus on the rounded pros and cons of the issues here and not get hung up on a badger vs farmers dialogue which emasculates the real arguments on both sides of the debate. There is an interesting wider theme here about the relationship between farming and conservation and just what the countryside is for. It has a still wider application stretching from food and farming through rural affordable housing, to the justifications for green belt.
It exposes the issues at the heart of our bucolic image of the countryside setting out the practical tensions between the countryside “of the mind” and the tough practicalities of living and working in rural England.