Great to hear that the proposed badger cull in Wales has been thrown out! Victory for the little fellas 8)
CG won't be so happy though …..

BadgerBadgerBadgerBadgeretc.

that does not solve anything, badgers cuddly little cut buggers that they appear do a lot of damage when there are to many in an area, that's before we get onto Bovine TB and the serious issue that it has become. At some point numbers will need to be managed.

mushroooooom, mushrooooom

Snaaaaaake!

ahhhhhh bless, look at its little face and its pink tummy 🙂

Had a badger tear up bits of my lawn once which I wasn't best pleased about but overall I quite like them – but then I'm not well versed in the effects of Bovine TB etc.

They do also provide the hair/fur for great shaving brushes too.

I was in the back garden last night around 10pm when I heard the badgers in the woods so I sat down on my lawn behind the decking and they came into the garden and one came up to me and was about 2 feet away until it realized and then ran off! amazing creatures, I will wait for them again and see if I can get some pics!

I thought the strength of the link between bovine TB and badgers depended on whether you are a farmer or an animal lover…

Bovine TB could be solved by vaccination. If a link is proven (although I suspect there is a link). Culling badgers is applying a C17 solution to the 21st century.

Look at it… You can almost seer the TB crawling around in it's fur. I reckon that could give TB to a cow from 30 feet away judging on how vicious and nasty it looks.

Bring back badger baiting, that's what I say. Let the landed gentry and terrier owners hunt their TB riddled bodies apart before they kill us all!!!

Why not kill the humans, I'm sure we're responsible for more cow deaths than TB?

Interesting fact: In France (or some parts at least), "badger" is what they call a chav.

Why not kill the humans, I'm sure we're responsible for more cow deaths than TB?

Probably more cow lives tho too!

Why not kill the humans

Nobody thunk it, nobody knew
No one imagined the great cow guru
He hid in the forest, read books with great zeal
He loved Che Guevera, a revolutionary veal

That's almost as cute as that clip of the baby sloths…

I think the farmers have to look at their own biosecurity and livestock movments before bothering about badgers.

I like badgers, and I wouldn't want to see them culled (I'm still yet to see a live one in the flesh!).

But, I'm not a farmer, and I know it costs them a lot of money. I'm sure vaccinations would be the way to go. Surely culling badgers will only solve the problem for a little while?

I know it costs them a lot of money

Does it ****. They got £24 million last year in compensation for TB infected cattle. Of course they need to keep constantly whingeing ……… to keep the cash rolling in.

The cull was predicted to reduce bovine TB by 9%. If it was going to stamp it out, then maybe there's a case for it, but 9%… Leaving aside the fact that culling has been demonstrated in many cases to increase TB (because it causes more badger movement) Cattle, by and large, get TB from cattle.

Mmmmmm, Badger! Tasty!

will the farmers get more money now they've stopped the cull?

Why not vaccinate the cows ? Am I missing something here ? Most of us are jabbed as kids to protect us / society :- does anyone know why cattle are not vaccinated against TB ?

Do you like your milk with added TB? Bovine TB is spread from cow to cow by modern farming that is required to keep those of you that are users in milk. Herds that are free of TB are almost certainly infected by other animals and the cuddly baders are top of the list for spreading TB. This may or may not be true depending which way you view the facts but you can't get away from the TB issue and it's cost. Cows with TB get the bolt in the head and the badgers die slow and painfully.

Do the badgers give the cows bovine TB or do the cows give the badgers it?

But if they were vaccinated they wouldn't get TB and the bolt in the head.
And badgers wouldn't [eventually ]get it either

Do the badgers give the cows bovine TB or do the cows give the badgers it?

Well it is called Bovine TB and not Musteline TB

http://www.ffl.org/ffl_pf_commercial_milk.php

http://www.themeatrix.com/

Blimey!

I have images of badgers chasing cows around the field at night playing Bovine TB tag.

Yep Ambrose, pasteurisation should kill most bacteria like Bovine TB, but hormones are a little trickier I guess.

Surely culling badgers will only solve the problem for a little while?

Its not proven to do even that.

Do the badgers give the cows bovine TB or do the cows give the badgers it?

Both. Like F&M vacinatting the cattle has serious economic considerations for export market so a badgers vaccine is needed that can be left on bait for badgers but it is a few years off yet.

mushroooooom, mushrooooom

IT will be BEAVERS next ,but there again "EAT A BEAVER A DAY "

SUPPORT THE BADGERS

How much money is being ploughed into compensation for the farmers? For a naturally occurring situation? Do landowners near the sea get compensation if cliffs collapse or if any other reasonably predictable natural occurance happens? If the equivalent of the money paid out as compensation was put into research into prevention I'd be happier. I do not know the figures though, the cynic in me suspects that the research and development budget is considerably smaller than the compensation budget for the same problem.

I am perplexed by the whole compensation scenario. Why can't farmers take out insurance for this eventuality? If I as a tax payer am having to fork out for the compensation I'd like to be reassured that the farmers are trying their hardest to ensure that their herds are protected. But if the commercial 'answer' is to kill off an indigenous species then that is not an acceptable answer to many, myself included. If it means that additional money needs to be spent then it should be transferred to the end user- i.e. the consumer. I use commercial milk, it's cheap and convenient but if I had to pay more for it due to the additional costs to the farming industry for the research into acceptable ways of prevention of bovine TB then so be it. And if the cost was too high I'd buy less milk I suppose.

filthy big rats, not even good eatin!

But it's all ok.

Anyone who watched the Ch4 news will know.

The badgers will be fine, as they have BRIAN MAY of QUEEN on their side

Thank god I say. Someone had to bring some common sense to this debate 🙄

filthy big rats

I think you might be confusing them with another animal.

💡 Big rats maybe ?

The picture in the OP will give you a clue to what badgers look like.

farmers get compensation as when its found on their farm all the cattle are killed. Like F&M bovine TB need not worry us.

Hooray for badgers!