Disastrous impact on ecosystem if we continue culling badgers
The government is planning to expand a badger culling programme and offer farmers up to £50 bounty for each animal killed.
The killing of these animals is wrong and it would have a disastrous impact on the ecosystem. That is why it must be stopped.
I’m an ecologist, zoo keeper and teacher of agriculture and environmental science – I know how important badgers are to our environment. They disperse seeds that help plants grow, and they build tunnels which end up being used by foxes, rabbits, otters and other animals.
More than 50,000 badgers have been culled by farmers in the last two years, and if we keep on going this way it will have a serious impact on our environment. In the past, wolves, lynxes and wild boars were hunted to extinction and are now having to be reintroduced.
Why are we repeating the same mistakes again with the badger?
The government says this is part of a programme to stop the spread of bovine TB, but previous trials of culling badgers have not successfully stopped the disease. Vaccinations would be a far more ethical way of stopping TB, along with increased hygiene measures in farms.
Badgers are an iconic symbol of the British countryside, and killing them will leave a huge hole in the ecosystem and do long-term damage to our environment.
The news is currently reporting that the cull will start in the autumn. That only leaves us a few months to change the government’s mind, so we need to act now!
Please sign now to stop the cull happening at change.org/p/michael-gove-stop-the-nationwide-cull-of-badgers
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