Vermin, Victims and Disease by Angela Cassidy

Author:Angela Cassidy
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9783030191863
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

5.3 In Sickness and in Health? Caring for Tuberculous Badgers

As explored in Chap. 2, by 1975 MAFF had built a consensus around its new policy regime, in which the scientific uncertainties were investigated while the ministry implemented a ‘humane’ policy of gassing badgers in response to bTB in cattle. Naturalists and badger protection campaigners were integral to the formation of this consensus, as well as to MAFF’s ability to understand the problem. Like the scientists of PICL, they had been following and learning about badgers for many decades prior to the animals’ social transformation into disease vectors. Therefore, not only did Harry Thompson turn to his colleague Ernest Neal, but local ICD and SVS officers worked with the immediately available expertise of badger naturalists. The local ‘badger recorder’ of the Mammal Society, Arthur Killingley, helped MAFF officers with initial surveys in Gloucestershire, while the animal handling expertise of Jane Ratcliffe and Ruth Murray was drawn upon to help PICL scientists develop ethical practices for catching and killing the animals. Following the public disaster of the Scrubbet’s Farm culling demonstration, badger advocates also agreed that gassing was a more acceptably humane culling technique than the previously deployed option of snaring. In turn, as we have seen, government officials in MAFF and the Home Office finally aligned themselves with the campaign for badger protection. This resulted in the passing of the dual-purpose Badgers Act in 1973, and an amendment to Peter Hardy’s Wild Creatures and Plants Protection Bill in 1975, legalising the use of Cymag on badgers. MAFF’s new policies were initially supported by campaigners, with ‘wildlife interests’ formally contributing to the effort via the Consultative Panel, included Neal alongside representatives of bodies including the NCC, UFAW, the NFU and the Country Landowners Association. Soon after the new policy started to be implemented, this consensus started to fragment. Memories of illegal badger gassing resurfaced, alongside campaigners’ fears that government bTB control would legitimise and encourage the still present threat of badger persecution. Following the lead of Ratcliffe and Murray, more badger groups were established, often growing out of local natural history societies and Wildlife Trusts.66 Members of these groups studied the animals closely, providing more and more data about badger traces, while keeping a close eye on the activities of MAFF officers. They increasingly reported incidents where blocked, gassed setts had been dug out from the inside, and the reappearance of disoriented animals which had not been killed. Ruth Murray became even more critical of MAFF’s policies, contesting the idea that badgers contracted bTB at all, and leading ‘sit-in’ protests against culling near her animal sanctuary on Dartmoor.67

In Somerset, a naturalist by the name of Eunice Overend (Fig. 5.3) was becoming involved in the issue. Like Ernest Neal, Overend had gained a biology degree, then worked as a teacher while continuing her studies of the natural history and geology of her area.68 As well as writing her own monographs, Overend published several articles in the conservation journal Oryx, while her illustrations of badgers were used in others’ publications.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.