Badgers: To Cull, or Not to Cull?

Ok it’s a new dawn, it’s a new day. Well it’s nearly half past six but, come on it’s a Saturday. And for that very reason I did not buy a paper today, so I had to be adventurous and seek out some kind of story using the interwebs.

The first thing to really pique my interest was a report on a policy that would allow farmers to cull badgers so as to lessen the threat of TB for their cattle. Not necessarily a topic most people would choose, but hey, I’m a country lad, I know plenty of farmers who are gagging to whip out their shotguns and have a killing frenzy on the stripy little monsters (Any excuse will do). That brings to mind something I’ve talked to people about before. As a rule, non-country folk seem to have a skewed view of badgers, no doubt a result of things like Wind in the Willows, Fantastic Mr Fox, or The (amazing) Animals of Farthing Wood. Which, as a rule, tend to give them fairly nice dispositions, maybe a touch grumpy, but otherwise very amiable creatures.

The truth is, badgers are evil bastards who can be as viciously crazed as a maniacal Francis Begbie on PCP (Hurray for Trainspotting references). I remember when I was little, I was told on a field trip, that if a badger were to attack you and bite, say, your leg. That the best thing to do was to grab two rocks, and hit them together, because the sound would trick the badger into thinking it had broken your leg bone, and that was the only way to make it let go. Personally I think hitting it with your two rocks would be effective as well but you don’t question your elders when you're eight years old.

As a rule, badgers shouldn’t attack you unless they feel backed into a corner, but let’s face it they’re not the most intelligent animals (they could probably think the middle of a field is a corner), especially judging from the number of deaduns on the side of the road in Devon (I feel sorry for whoever hits them, badgers are built like the proverbial poophouse, and can leave one hell of a dent in your car). The best way to avoid them is to make sure you don't stick your hand down any six inch (or so) wide tunnels, looking for treasure. You may end up with a hefty manicure.

Now that most of you think I spend my free time burning ants with a magnifying glass, I'll share something. Funnily enough, I’m not in favour of killing animals, unless it’s for food. Frankly, I find trophy hunting disgusting. But like I said, I know farmers, and I know what badgers can mean for them, and for their cattle. So maybe this culling order should go through. All I know is that there are better qualified people than me who will decide.

What are your thoughts? Should there be a cull? Or is it going too far?


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12500468