Badgering

Nov. 16th, 2010 08:18 pm
andygates: (badger)
So, the Tories are in power and their special friends in the NFU are after some sweet sweet blood, or so it seems.  There's only one bit of large-scale science done on badger culls here -- and it says, unequivocally, that it'll suck: it won't be effective in stopping TB, it won't be cost-effective, it'll mess with an apex predator and that's never straightforward, it's basically dumb knee-jerk thinking.

So, of course, the government will do what it always does with science it doesn't like, and ignore it utterly.  The author's even turning up to campaign meetings now.  The RSPCA are doing the big sane campaign thing here (sign up! write in!); there will doubtless be less calm campaigns from the usual suspects as the whole thing gets momentum. 

Instead of vaccination and movement restrictions (the NFU wanted those lifted, talk about petards), it'll be a spasm of head-taking, cull sabbers getting in fights, and no reduction in bloody TB in cattle or sodding badgers.  Pathetic.  
andygates: (Default)
Ah, the videogame as satire: Harpooned is exactly what it says on the (whalemeat) tin.

andygates: (Default)
Mr Splashy PantsGood news from Greenpeace today: Mr Splashy Pants is safe for now.  The Japanese have decided not to hunt any humpback whales this season.  They're still hunting for around 1000 fin and minke whales in the traditional utter-bollox 'scientific' program, so if you're a whale-savin' hippy, there is still work to do.

MV Steve IrwinOfficially, this is due to pressure from the International Whaling Commission - humpbacks are endangered.  Fin and minke whales are less so, so the pressure there is less.  But in addition to the pressure, the anti-whaling campaign is in pretty high gear this year.  The BBC has an embedded journalist blogging on the Greenpeace ship Esperanza, and the Sea Shepherd's enforcement ship Steve Irwin is down there getting ready to kick some whaler arse.

Who is Mr Splashy Pants, I hear you ask?  Well, Greenpeace ran one of those "name a whale" votes to put a cuddly face to a tagged whale.  There were lots of worthy faux-ethnic names, and Mr Splashy Pants.  Ol' Pantserooney took the vote by storm as well he should.  There are enough Keikos and Foamsparkles in the world already.  Weirdly, there's American Mr Splashy Pants fan-art which clearly has linguistic issues, depicting his cousin, Mr Splashy Trousers.
andygates: (badger)
The King report is here: http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/tb/pdf/badgersreport-king.pdf

Basically, it's an attempt at a stopgap. Kill enough badgers to decrease the "reservoir of infection" and maintain the cull until something better (like badger vaccination or -gasp- better farming practices) comes along. It won't be a one-off and to work it would need to be repeated year after year in cull areas.

The smart, long-term approach would be to tag badgers now, get a really good idea of their movements and meanwhile expedite vaccine development. Then routinely vaccinate until the "reservoir of infection" is emptied. This would be cheaper in the long term, it would be massively more acceptable to the public, and it would be more effective.

I hope we can keep the anger level high enough that the politicians see that this is a vote-loser. That might steer them in the right direction. Very unpopular cull programmes would probably result in direct-action badger defense protests and a whole wave of "swampy versus the farmers" protest, which would be less desirable but an understandable reaction.

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