Shropshire badger cull is needed, says MP Owen Paterson

The former environment secretary spoke of his frustration after Dorset was named as the next county to introduce the cull – and called for farmers here to campaign harder for a cull.

Somerset and Gloucestershire have already been involved in the cull but original plans for Dorset to be involved were blocked by the Liberal Democrats.

He may look like a pampered pet dozing on his bed, but this tiny badger cub is still very much a wild animal, in captivity for one night only.

He was caught in north Shropshire as part of a drive to vaccinate as many of the notoriously shy creatures as possible in the county, in the second year of a scheme by the Shropshire Badger Group to help tackle bovine TB.

The group is hoping to keep vaccinating for four years to boost the immune systems of the county's badger population and stop the devastating disease spreading.

The group is now calling for donations to help them continue their work, which they say is the best alternative to killing badgers to stop the spread of bovine TB.

They have already dipped heavily into their reserves to start off the programme.

Jim Ashley, group chairman, said the cub was one of 40 animals vaccinated so far this year over eight targeted areas in the county.

He said: "It was caught by the north Shropshire team – he just looks like he's sitting there waiting to be fed. What we do is survey all the locations, put trail cameras out to see what we've got and where the badgers are going, then put out the cages."

He said once the animals had got used to the cages and food, they then trapped them and vaccinated them the following morning.

They spend two days vaccinating in one area and then move on to the next area.

"It's been quite a good year. We started in May, much earlier than last year, when we had to get people trained and put the scheme together," he said.

"We've spent about £5,000 to get everything in place, and because we had to push on quickly we did what we did from reserves, so we're now focusing on raising a bit of money.

"What we want to do is vaccinate for four consecutive years which should give us enough cover over the social group," he said.

The vaccine stops badgers getting TB and they pass their immunity on to their cubs, he said. While it doesn't cure those already infected, it does make them significantly less infectious.

To donate visit www.shropshirebadgergroup.co.uk or the group's fundraising page at gogetfunding.com/shropshire-badger-group.

The North Shropshire MP welcomed the extension into Dorset but said the initiative needs to be expanded more quickly to help farmers who have bovine TB in their cattle.

Mr Paterson, an avid supporter of the culling of bovine TB-infected badgers as part of a programme to wipe out the disease in cattle, said it was time for the cull to be rolled out across the whole of Britain.

"North Shropshire, from Market Drayton to Ellesmere, along with south Cheshire, has been badly hit by bovine TB," he said.

"But unless the farmers get together, perhaps under the umbrella of the NFU, put forward a plan and draw up a cull map using hard boundaries such as rivers and roads we will not get a cull here."

He said that as secretary of state for the environment he visited the farm of Paul Gould in Dorset, just after the dairy farmer had to send 25 calf heifers for slaughter when they tested positive for TB.

"Not one animal had been bought in on that farm for 60 years, so this has to have come in through the wildlife," he said.

"We need to eradicate the disease the best we can, not only in cattle but in our wildlife. It has proved successful in American, Australia and New Zealand and most importantly in Northern Ireland where the number of cattle slaughter has dropped from 44,907 to 15,612."

The MP said the number of cattle killed in Somerset had also dropped dramatically since the pilot cull in the county.

"That is despite the efforts of the saboteurs," he said.

For an area to be chosen, a body of farmers have to draw up and finance plans for a cull together with a defined area and put that forward to be considered by the government.

"I am sure such a proposal would be supported by Shropshire MPs," he added.

Helen Cork, Shropshire NFU county adviser, said: "This is something that some of our members would like to see in Shropshire and is an essential way of tackling this disease, as farmers are already subject to considerable cattle controls to try to reduce the spread of TB.

"Bovine TB is a huge problem for many beef and dairy farmers across Shropshire, as well as large parts of the Midlands and South West England."