Jones won't give up on bTB

Readers' comments (5)

• Janice Curtis | 20 July 2010 11:16 am

  I was pleased with the result from the court of appeal, because i think before we start killing our wildlife it would be a good idea to perfect the test, it is only 80% accurate.
  While cows are still turning up in abattoirs with TB, it is quite obvious that killing wildlife would be a waste of tax payers money.
  The disease needs to be treated at its source, the cow, not by killing wildlife.
  We have spent well in excess of 100 million on the science to prove a link between the cow and the badger, instead of concentrating on getting it right on the farm first.
  We have been killing badgers for over 34 years and so far it has made not the slightest difference in the long run.
  This is first a cattle disease, the fact that it has escaped into the wildlife is unfortunate, but not the root cause.
  Lets look at cleaning up the husbandry, and examining the stocking densities on farms, and first and foremost having a TB test that is accurate.
  I am speaking as a retired farmer, and not as accused in the past a badger hugger.
  Please let common sense prevail, as the judge has said 9% improvement is not significant .

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• Mrs Pat Quinn | 20 July 2010 3:05 pm

  I am sorry Janice Curtis to contradict you but there is no way my cattle gave TB to the Badgers on my farm. I have had a closed herd for 30 years and saw the inevitable coming closer and closer with nobody listening to my cries of despair!

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• Jan Curtis | 20 July 2010 4:22 pm

  I suspect that no way did the badgers give your cattle TB either if you look at it that way, It is after all a bovine disease, so no matter how you look at it , it had to start in the cow. As to a closed herd I have heard that cry so often from farmers who take there cattle to shows etc, and don't count that as not being closed.
  Also you cannot close your herd from incoming lorries, milk tankers and feed lorries, or from the things picked up on the tyres of your own vehicles. Or the AI man if you don't have a bull.
  Birds, dogs, cats, crossing the land as well, make a mockery of the closed herd cry.
  I am sorry but I was a ' closed herd' so called as well, LOL, I don't believe in any such thing, you cannot keep any wildlife off your land no matter what ,not just badgers., but wild deer as well, there is just to much going on out in the fields.
  Shared water courses as well as drinking troughs, used by the cattle and the wildlife.
  Most people think they are a closed herd because they have their own bull and don't buy in stock, but if any one is coming onto your land, and not washing their lorry tyres etc as was done in the foot and mouth outbreak then disease can enter no matter what you do.
  As I said I am no stranger to bTB myself as a retired farmer, but I cannot see how 34 years of persecuting one animal in the name of TB has done the slightest good.
  You only have to look at the problems in Ireland where the badger is now virtually extinct in some areas because of years of intensive culling, the incidence of bTB is still rising there, after a only a short period of relief, and cows are still turning up in the abattoirs with TB there as well, in the same way they are here.
  I would if I were you not be shouting for the death of the badger, but lobbying my government for a better test for my cows, this is the first line of defence as far as I can see, without an accurate test, everything else makes no sense at all.
  As already said this is a bovine disease.

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• Anonymous | 20 July 2010 10:14 pm

  Yet again the judiciary overrules the elected government. Yet again the judiciary shows it is unfit for purpose. When are we going to say enough is enough and get rid of these judges?

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• Anonymous | 21 July 2010 4:16 pm

  Elin no do not give up everyone seems to think its a game. It is all for health reasons animals and humans,you must talk more strongly to every one, Is there anyone I can talk to.I have been both sides of the fence. The old ones told me what happened,I was in hospital for 9years,did not think I would walk again. I will be writing a book as knowone seems to know what happened years ago. Mr May had better get back to playing his fiddle, I dont tell him what to play and why.When I get down to it ,it will be a real tear jerker Toots

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