Alex Easton MLA has said he will oppose and vote against any proposals to cull Bangers after DAERA launches a Consultation on the Department’s Proposed Implementation and next Steps of the bTB Eradication Strategy for Northern Ireland
Speaking today Alex Easton MLA said:
I suppose this was going to happen sooner rather than later as an Independent MLA I would make my own decisions and go against a former colleague. So the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera) has opened a consultation on culling Badgers because of TB. This would mean the indiscriminate killing of Badgers whether they have TB or not. I will outline my reasons to oppose this method to tackle TB being proposed by DAERA.
- A) 80% of Badgers do not have TB. So why kill them all.
- B) Other animals carry TB such as deer so it’s unfair to blame it all on Badgers.
- C) Culls in England have proven not to be successful and in one case did not even reduce TB incidents in cattle.
- D) There is a vaccine that protects healthy Badgers from getting TB which is successful, so why not trap Badgers and test them for TB and vaccinate the healthy ones this has been done.
- E) Farmers should still continue to be compensated at the market value as they currently do that should not change.
I am totally and utterly opposed to the mass shooting of all Badgers whether they are health or have TB or not,, and this is my thinking on the issue. Let’s tackle TB but protect our Badger population and protect the farmers also but in a way which doesn’t need cull every Badger indiscriminately in the way proposed by DAERA, let’s trap and vaccinate as the way to go.
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