IF you care about the slaughter of badgers and want to stop it, write to David Cameron at Downing Street or to James Pake MP Minister of State for Agriculture and Food, at DEFRA, Nobel House, Smith Square, London.
This Government won’t tell you the figures, so I will.
The Government says 25,000 cattle are slaughtered because of bovine tuberculosis; what they don’t tell you is that farmers claim £90 million in compensation – that is £3,600 per head of cattle.
They never tell us about the other premature slaughter of cattle, such as occurred in 2009 when 120,000 cattle were slaughtered because they were infertile. In 2008, 75,000 were slaughtered because they were not in calf, 50,000 because of mastitis, 25,000 because of lameness and 7,000 because they were low yield. Plus all the male dairy calves that are killed at birth because they are unprofitable.
There was good news on March 20, when Welsh Environment Minister John Griffiths announced his decision to abandon plans to cull badgers in Wales. Instead they are starting a five-year badger vaccination programme, beginning this summer.
D Fillingham, The Crossway, York.
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