THE government’s badger culls have been branded an “epic failure” by the chief scientific adviser to Natural England (NE), the organisation that authorised them. Professor David Macdonald, who sits on the NE board and chairs its scientific advisory committee, criticised the 2013 trial culls in Somerset and Gloucestershire in which 1,861 badgers were shot, saying: “It is hard to see how continuing this approach could be justified.” Macdonald, director of Oxford University’s wildlife conservation research unit, made his comments in The State of Britain’s Mammals, a report for the People’s Trust for Endangered Species. The criticisms will be another embarrassment for Owen Paterson, the environment secretary, who ordered the culls and claimed they were vital to help wipe out bovine TB. Last week other scientists published research in Nature showing how farmers moving infected cattle between farms was the key source of infection — and culling badgers would be of negligible benefit. The Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs said the culls would restart this year. NE said Macdonald had supported its 2013 decision to issue a four-year licence to cull badgers. Macdonald said he did not want to comment further but Dominic Dyer, of the Badger Trust, said Macdonald was now “hopelessly compromised. He should resign from the NE board. thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/Science/article1430947.ece
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 11:20:05 +0000
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