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Tuesday 19 September 2017

Another badger cull this Autumn

Another badger cull is planned for this Autumn. Licences have been issued for the culling of up to 1,000 badgers in Somerset and Gloucestershire. I fail to see the use of this cull when it will leave approx. 800,000 badgers to carry on spreading BTB. sorry that could be the other way round. One may hear of lots of reports of cattle being found with BTB but I am yet to come across a report of a badger with it. This disease is also carried by deer and there are far more deer roaming our countryside than badgers. Bovine TB is carried by many animals including household cats. I can remember back in the 1960's TB was rife in humans and by the late 70's it had almost disappeared through vaccination on a grand scale and it has only returned because of immigration, but it it still under control. So if the government still insists on culling perhaps it should be extended to include the many animals that we keep as pets.
This terrible disease is spread through excretions from the body, have you ever looked at a farmyard that is used by cattle then looked at the area surrounding a badger sett, badgers have latrines, cattle do it anywhere all over their dinner table, need I say more. Flies are seen all over cattle (at both ends), the only time you will see a fly on a badger is when the badger is dead.
It is cheaper to vaccinate than to cull. I am glad to say that some counties will not comply with the cull and many land owners will not allow it on their land. Wales vaccinate as do Ireland.

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Mike Attwood - Photographer

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Evacuated during the second world war to a village in Yorkshire where I lived in the home of a good photographer for more than five years who taught me the basics and a great deal about nature. Well past retirement age I have been a wildlife photographer for more than 30 years. Red Kites have been my speciality for much of this period. I did spend several years snapping wheelchair athletes and organizing the British Road Race Championship. In the year 2000 I was awarded a distinction by the Royal Photographic Society for my portfolio on wheelchair athletes. Most of my pics are digital, using Sony cameras and Sigma lenses. I used to spend many weeks each year with friends in Wales which is close to the Elan Valleys where I got many of my raptor pics. I now get these pictures more closely to home, specially red kites and peregrines. I support my pension by selling my pics, cards, coasters, fridge magnets and key rings etc. at craft fairs, something I wish I had done much earlier in life. I give illustrated talks to clubs and societies on wildlife and other branches of photography that I have been involved in.