The Northern Ireland Badger Group has condemned Department of Agriculture plans to kill 1000 badgers in a pilot cull as ‘slaughter dressed as science’.

In a response to questions from the Public Accounts Committee, DARD admitted it is about to implement a pilot badger cull with permission to kill 1,000 badgers in a bovine TB intense area. DARD claims that the purpose of the cull is to gauge how many, if any, were carriers of the disease.

Incredibly, even when under fire from the Public Accounts Committee, DARD remains determined to squander public money on a pointless cull. Yet again the badger card has been played to deflect attention from the failings of DARD and the veterinary sector to implement and police measures at the farm gate.

Badger Group spokesman Mike Rendle said,

‘Killing 1000 badgers in a TB intense area can be nothing else but a cull. Both DARD and the NIEA, who issued the licence to kill the badgers, have failed to provide any genuine scientific justification for this appalling act of slaughter.'

Mr. Rendle also challenges Department claims that profiles would be built on the results of the cull and recommendations made for the future.

’This cull will do nothing to advance our knowledge about the control of TB,’ he said. ‘The Department has been processing road-kill badgers for over 30 years now. There is no shortage of badgers killed on our roads and yet DARD has failed to collect and use that data efficiently. A properly managed study of road kills would produce the information that the cull is supposed to provide in a humane and more cost-effective way.’

‘Let’s be clear, this is not some benign experiment - its sole purpose is to kill badgers in response to the hysteria generated by elements in the farming sector. Badgers caught using wire snares will suffer horribly. This is not science, it’s not humane and it’s not necessary’, he added.

The Northern Ireland Badger Group is an independent, not for profit initiative which aims to promote the understanding, protection and welfare of badgers. It opposes all inhumane acts against badgers including baiting, digging, gassing and snaring.

The NIBG is affiliated to the Badger Trust and works closely with Badger Watch Ireland.

The group seeks to work with the farming community to resolve the bovine TB problem.  However there is no scientific evidence to suggest that culling badgers is in anyway an effective measure against TB.

For further information please visit our website at www.badgersni.org.uk