Minister for Environment and Sustainable Development, John Griffiths, has announced that the Chief Scientific Advisor will be carrying out a review of the scientific evidence on bovine TB and the effectiveness of culling or vaccinating badgers. While this review takes place, no badger cull will be started.
Coverage from the BBC, WalesOnline and the Farmer's Guardian.
Footage of the announcement is available on the BBC website.
The transcript of the debate can be downloaded here (the bovine TB section starts on page 35)
Can Defra get enough farmers to pay?
The BBC are covering the Badger cull in England at the link in the title. Feel free to chip in to the debate in the comments section.
You can help prevent the badger cull in Wales by donating to our fighting fund. This will help us, supported by the Badger Trust, to take the necessary action to challenge the Welsh Assembly Government decision. All funds donated will be held by the Badger Trust, registered charity no 1111440, in an account specifically for this purpose. Here's how to donate:
1. Go to our Just Giving page - where you can donate online. It is simple and totally secure. They take a small percentage for providing the service.
2. By cheque made payable to The Badger Trust and sent direct to them at Badger Trust, P O Box 708, East Grinstead, RH19 2WN. Please be sure you make it clear that your donation is for the Welsh fighting fund - and write PAC/Welsh Badgers Fighting Fund on the back of your cheque.
3. By credit card if you phone the Badger Trust office on 08458 287878 and again make sure you tell them your donation is for the Welsh fighting fund.
For larger donations it is preferable, if you are able, to donate by cheque direct to the Badger Trust , rather than Just Giving or credit/debit card to avoid the commission charges. Also, please indicate if your donation is eligible for Gift Aid.
Many thanks for your support.
Pro vaccination group Pembrokeshire Against the Cull (PAC) welcomes the news that the Badger Trust have sent a formal letter before action with a view to commencing legal proceedings in the High Court if the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) refuses to revoke its Order to destroy badgers. The WAG proposes to kill badgers as part of its bovine tuberculosis (bTB) eradication programme.
This is the first stage in the Judicial Review Process. The letter sets out the potential grounds that may be challenged.
Full PAC press release here
Badger Trust press release here
Read the Letter before Action itself
This film, produced by PAC to explain why we think culling is a bad idea. Welsh Assembly Members will be voting on Wednesday 23rd March on whether or not to annul the Badger (Control Area) (Wales) Order 2011
Part 1:
Part 2:
An online petition has been launched at the Care2 Petition site.
Please sign it and publicise it to your contacts
Pro vaccination group Pembrokeshire Against The Cull will be showing a specially commissioned film to an invited audience of Assembly Members and Media representatives at The Welsh Assembly's Media Briefing Room on Tuesday 22nd March 2011.
It will be the first public screening of "Pembrokeshire Against The Cull" a short film explaining: "Why we believe that culling badgers is a really bad idea..."
Following the screening there will be a Question and Answer Session.
Full press release:
17/03/2011 : Pembrokeshire Against the Cull (PAC) to screen anti cull film at The Welsh Assembly Cardiff
We are extremely disappointed to report that The Minister of Rural Affairs Elin Jones has again ignored the science, sound economics, human rights issues and the views of the overwhelming majority of the public and has decided to proceed with a Badger Cull in North Pembrokeshire and parts of Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion. Her cynical timing of this announcement, just after the referendum, to bring the Order into force on 31st March, the final day of this Assembly, denies the public the opportunity to seek better Assembly representation of their views on this issue at the ballot box on May 5th.
Full press releases:
9/03/2011 : Minister makes same badger cull mistake again
10/03/2011 : Welsh Badger Cull plan: The fight continues
We expect a debate and a vote before the end of March, when the Order would otherwise come into force, so we would urge everyone to contact their Assembly Members and ask them to vote against this Order.
The evidence used by the Minister to support this decision can be found here.
This will remain avalable on our Downloads page and printed copies will be available at future events.
DEFRA have published (near the bottom of the page) results from the recent trials of the injectable BCG vaccine for badger and some results from a modelling study
The results of the vaccine field trial (and annexes) come from a four year trial designed to establish the safety of the BCG vaccine when used on badgers, but which incidentally gave some very interesting results on the effectiveness of the vaccine. Most interestingly it shows a very high 74% reduction in new incidences of badgers testing postive to an antibody test for bovine TB. Another interferon-based test showed only a 19% reduction, but that test was expected to give some false positive results on vaccinated badgers, just as the skin test used on cattle fails to distinguish infected cattle from vaccinated ones.
It should be noted that the antibody test struggles to detect animals which have only very mild cases of TB, so it is quite possible that at least part of the 74% reduction is caused by badgers who are still infected, but not severely so as a result of vaccination. However, since badgers are only infectious in the more severe stages of the disease, and only have an expected lifespan of 4 to 5 years, a vaccine that massively reduces the severity TB incidence over a 4 year period would be almost as effective as one that prevents infection altogether, from the point of view of long term disease prevention. It should also be noted that, if the vaccine has reduced the severity of infection in treated badgers, even those badgers who tested positive are likely to be less infectious than they would have been without the vaccine.
The modelling results are most significant in that, in stark contradiction to earlier studies, they predict that a combined culling and vaccination strategy might have better results than culling or vaccination alone. These results do still show that vaccination will have immediate results on TB prevalence in both cattle and badgers, in contrast to the claim by pro-cull activists that vaccination will take many years to show any effect, and they also show that culling (with or without vaccination) will initially increase TB prevalence in badgers. However they contradict the experimental evidence in predicting that culling will reduce, rather than increase, TB prevalence in cattle for the first few years of the programme.
If you would like to receive regular news updates from PAC about the cull or upcoming events, please email us at info@pembrokeshireagainstthecull.org.uk asking to be added to the list. This replaces the old Yahoo! Group.
With the cull at least temporarily quashed, there is a risk of landowners taking the law into their own hands. This is not only illegal, but will in fact spread TB in the area, so everyone should be vigilant. This document gives you some information about what to do if you suspect illegal badger killing is taking place.
We are in the process of putting together a 'media' page with music, videos and photos about the badger cull. In the meantime here are two music videos on the subject:
For more information contact 