The good, the badgers and the ugly...
So. Badgers as the latest political hot potato. Who'd have though it?
Let's have a look why, shall we?
There is an organisation which calls itself "The Countryside Alliance". Largely modelling itself on the stereotype "Farmer Palmer" character in Viz, one could almost believe it's slogan was "Get orff my laand..."
But it isn't. As far as I know.
I any event, whilst pretending to represent the interests of the countryside, it in fact represents the interests of what is best termed "Agri-business" - large farms owned by large corporations, dedicated to mass-production farming. Amongst the benefits that this style of farming has brought are such delights as BSE - caused by feeding cows to other cows - and the spread of foot-and-mouth disease, when there is a perfectly good vaccine that would prevent it.
It has also seen the decline in rural wages and loss of employment. One might think, first and foremost, if the self-styled "Countryside Alliance" had any interest in representing the countryside, such things might be high on their list of priorities. But no. Primarily they seem concerned with satisfying some perverse blood-lust by slaughtering animals. Whatever. But they have also declared war on badgers. Badger-baiting has always been popular with the fox-hunting fraternity (presumably inspired by the same perverse desire to kill something they have no intention of eating), and certain hunts have been known to either block up badger setts, or dig up and kill the badgers (both illegal). However, they have also been propagating the bizarre and unsubstantiated claim that there is a connexion between badgers and bovine TB. Let's look at some facts here - badgers have only ever been shown to infect cows with TB in extreme, artificial conditions. In the wild, in all known cases, the likelihood is, rather, that badgers with bovine TB have been infected by cows. Also, during the foot and mouth epidemic, a couple of years back, TB was found to be spreading far more, from cow to cow, than anything that has been hypothesised involving badgers. Unsanitary conditions, anyone? Unsanitary conditions created by mass farming techniques, which in turn make a small number of rich landowners and large corporations richer, and which are therefore of interest to the Countryside Alliance in so far as they don't want people looking at them too much - it might hurt the profits...
Let's have a look why, shall we?
There is an organisation which calls itself "The Countryside Alliance". Largely modelling itself on the stereotype "Farmer Palmer" character in Viz, one could almost believe it's slogan was "Get orff my laand..."
But it isn't. As far as I know.
I any event, whilst pretending to represent the interests of the countryside, it in fact represents the interests of what is best termed "Agri-business" - large farms owned by large corporations, dedicated to mass-production farming. Amongst the benefits that this style of farming has brought are such delights as BSE - caused by feeding cows to other cows - and the spread of foot-and-mouth disease, when there is a perfectly good vaccine that would prevent it.
It has also seen the decline in rural wages and loss of employment. One might think, first and foremost, if the self-styled "Countryside Alliance" had any interest in representing the countryside, such things might be high on their list of priorities. But no. Primarily they seem concerned with satisfying some perverse blood-lust by slaughtering animals. Whatever. But they have also declared war on badgers. Badger-baiting has always been popular with the fox-hunting fraternity (presumably inspired by the same perverse desire to kill something they have no intention of eating), and certain hunts have been known to either block up badger setts, or dig up and kill the badgers (both illegal). However, they have also been propagating the bizarre and unsubstantiated claim that there is a connexion between badgers and bovine TB. Let's look at some facts here - badgers have only ever been shown to infect cows with TB in extreme, artificial conditions. In the wild, in all known cases, the likelihood is, rather, that badgers with bovine TB have been infected by cows. Also, during the foot and mouth epidemic, a couple of years back, TB was found to be spreading far more, from cow to cow, than anything that has been hypothesised involving badgers. Unsanitary conditions, anyone? Unsanitary conditions created by mass farming techniques, which in turn make a small number of rich landowners and large corporations richer, and which are therefore of interest to the Countryside Alliance in so far as they don't want people looking at them too much - it might hurt the profits...
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