Farmers Endorse Badger Cull Call
UK - Farmers in Oxfordshire have welcomed the prospect of a mass badger cull to control deadly tuberculosis in cattle.
25 October 2007
1 minute read
The total number of badgers needs to drop, because there are too many about and they have no natural predators.
Miles Saunders, of Step Farm, near Faringdon.
Cases of the disease doubled in Oxfordshire between 2003 and 2006, with a number of herds contracting tuberculosis on the west Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire border.
A report by the Government's chief scientific officer, Sir David King, backed the killing of badgers in areas where the disease is rife in cattle.
He said badgers were clearly a source of infection and numbers needed to be reduced to stop the disease spreading.
Miles Saunders, of Step Farm, near Faringdon, welcomed the report - he had to slaughter more than 100 animals when his farm tested positive for the disease last December.
He said: "The total number of badgers needs to drop, because there are too many about and they have no natural predators.
"But it's important to keep the healthy badgers alive, because they stop infected badgers moving into setts.
Source: Oxford Mail
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