Brian May heads to Bristol for badger cull rally

Queen guitarist to front event that marks launch of national campaign called ‘Stop the Cull’ led by animal welfare charities opposed to cull

Queen guitarist Brian May will be in Bristol next week as part of a rally against government plans to introduce a cull of badgers.

The rally marks the launch of a national campaign called ‘Stop the Cull’ – led by animal welfare charities opposed to the cull, including the RSPCA, League Against Cruel Sports, Save Me and Humane Society International (UK).

Campaigners will wear badger costumes at the free event. The charities are urging local people to come along and demonstrate their opposition to the cull.

The pilot culls are designed to reduce tuberculosis in cattle. Farmers and the government say the disease, which can be spread by badgers as well as among cattle, has become a huge cost to the industry. In 2010-11, nearly 25,000 cattle were slaughtered in England at a cost of £91m in government compensation.

But the charities say scientific studies have shown that culling would be of little help in reducing the disease and even suggest that it could make things worse in some areas.

Research undertaken by the Independent Scientific Group that took nearly a decade, cost approximately £50million and the lives of 11,000 badgers concluded “badger culling can make no meaningful contribution to cattle TB control in Britain”, they say.

The Stop the Cull campaign is pushing for the government to rethink their policy and implement a vaccination programme, along with increased levels of testing, improved farm biosecurity and stricter controls on the movement of cattle rather than culling 70% of the badger population, the vast majority of which are disease free.

Gavin Grant, chief executive of the RSPCA said: “The RSPCA and many other organisations oppose the cull of badgers for both scientific and animal welfare reasons. The campaign is rapidly gaining public support and over 100,000 objections to the cull have been recorded to date. The Government should look at the science, the results achieved in Wales and change their policy to one of vaccination – let’s cure and not kill.”

Meanwhile, their campaign has drawn cross-party support from Bristol, including leading Conservatives. Bristol24-7 reported in March that the Conservative Party spokesman in Bristol West had urged the coalition government to scrap its controversial plans.

Graham Godwin-Pearson’s statement came after Conservative think-tank the Bow Group unveiled a major paper saying the culls were likely to be more costly and less practical to conduct than ministers believe.

Mr Godwin-Pearson, the principle author and Tory spokesman in the Bristol West constituency, added the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ (Defra) focus should be on vaccination instead.

The rally on Tuesday will take place at College Green from 4.30-7pm.

News Link:–http://www.bristol247.com/2012/09/07/brian-may-heads-to-bristol-for-badger-cull-rally-81576/

HM Government Petition:-http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/38257

Kill the Cull, Not England’s Badgers

Published on 5 Sep 2012 by HSI

Time is running out for England‘s badgers — 7 out of 10 are slated to be shot in two trail areas; if the full policy is then rolled out up to 130,000 badgers in England could be killed. Not only is the government’s policy misguided, HSI is greatly concerned that many thousands of badgers could be injured and left to suffer a slow and painful death. Live in the UK? See how you can help

http://www.hsi.org/issues/badger_slaughter/?utm_source=desc090412&utm_med…

What can you do?

Hundreds of supporters attended the successful badger cull public meeting hosted by the League in Taunton on Friday 20th July read more>>. A second successful meeting followed on Wednesday 25th July in Tewkesbury.

Sign our petition against the cull. You can alsodownload a paper version of the petition to get your friends and family to sign.

If you can help out the campaign by joining one of our local groups, holding a street stall, talking to your MPs or writing letters to the press then please get in touch with our campaigns team.

If you live in one of the cull areas of west Gloucestershire or west Somerset then please sign our declaration stating that you will not allow the cull on your land.

 

 Why are they going to cull badgers?

The trials are part of government efforts to tackle the spread of bovine tuberculosis amongst cattle. The disease has a devastating affect on farmers and tens of thousands of cattle are slaughtered each year as a result.

Badgers were discovered to be infected with bTB in the mid 1970s and they have since been implicated in the transmission of infection to cattle.

Following a ten year study in which 10,000 badgers were trapped and culled to establish whether localised culling of badgers helps to reduce bTB the Independent Scientific Group (ISG) who carried out the experiment concluded that ‘badger culling cannot meaningfully contribute to the future control of cattle TB in Britain’.

Read some of the scientific arguments from both sides about the effectiveness of badger culling.

What will happen in the trials?

The trials are designed to test the effectiveness, humaneness and safety of the controlled shooting of badgers. If after a year free-shooting is ruled out, then farmers will be legally obliged to continue the cull on a much more costly ‘trap and shoot’ basis for the remaining years of their licence.

If the trials go ahead then shooting will start in autumn in two areas the first in west Somerset, partly in Taunton Deane and the second mainly within the Forest of Dean and Tewkesbury, and partly in the districts of Wychavon, Malvern Hills and west Gloucestershire. The trials will take place over six weeks.

The shooting will take place at night, and will be carried out by trained marksmen using high-powered rifles. Their remit will be to kill at least 70% of the badgers in each of the trial areas. The killing will be non-selective, but the majority of those killed will be healthy. Of the small percentage of badgers which may be carrying bovine TB, very few will be infectious and therefore capable of transmitting the disease.

News Link:-http://www.league.org.uk/content/643/Badger-Cull

Petition from The League Against Cruel Sports:-https://www.e-activist.com/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=122&ea.campaign.id=12310

Can you help the Badger cull ? YES YOU CAN…

Please only sign this declaration if you live in the pilot areas of west Gloucestershire and west Somerset. 

You can Downloadable materials that can help you, help them!

There’s plenty of other things you can do to fight the badger cull, write to your MP (find out who represents you here), collect petition signatures or even display a window poster!

Download some of our materials using the links below.

• Petition
• Sample letters
• Downloadable window poster
• Infographic
• Q & A
• Leaflet

Petition:- Urge David Cameron To Stop The Cull:–http://www.rspca.org.uk/getinvolved/campaigns/wildlife/stop-the-cull?source=CAMP_Badgers_030912%20remainder&utm_source=Campaigns&utm_medium=email&utm_content=ButtonTakeAction&utm_campaign=CAMP_Badgers_030912%20remainder&spMailingID=4750847&spUserID=MTQ2MTQ0OTMwOTkS1&spJobID=285750438&spReportId=Mjg1NzUwNDM4S0

League Against Cruel Sports – Video Revealing Truth Behind Shooting Industry

“This well thought out documentary gives the lay man an insight into what goes on within the shooting industry. From the rearing of the birds to the actual shooting, this film explores the hidden cruelty of this so-called sport. How can killing animals either by gun or snare be called a sport, in reality, these people are no better than those who attend canned hunts in Africa!”

Gunsmoke and Mirrors

Published on 6 Jul 2012 by LACS1924

Gunsmoke and Mirrors, a 30 minute documentary film is the culmination of ten years of investigation work by the League Against Cruel Sports into the shooting industry in which the horrific reality of the industry from beginning to end is revealed.

Despite claims that gamebirds are wild, natural and free range we show the reality of the intensive breeding and rearing conditions, shocking proof of the millions of other animals killed each year, many in brutal snares, to protect the precious stocks for shooting. Plus, evidence of the huge amount of wastage the industry produces making it clear that this is not about food but about sport.

Pamplona Bull Run Film

Pamplona – running of the bulls from League Against Cruel Sports on Vimeo.

Last year the League Against Cruel Sports visited the festival of San Fermín in Pamplona to witness the cruel reality of the encierro or running of the bulls. What many people do not realise is that the bulls are chased through the streets directly to the bull ring where they will be killed later that day. The festival is now a popular tourist destination with many companies promoting it as a fun holiday for the thrill seeker, however the reality is very different.

We are urging people not to support bullfighting by attending the Pamplona Bull run so please watch this video now and then share it with your friends and family on Facebook and Twitter using the links below.

News Link:–http://www.league.org.uk/blogs_entry.aspx?id=712

League Against Cruel Sports

“Let me just put one thing straight…I have never ever attended a hunt, despite being in the equine business for 40+ years. I never have & never will be associated with this barbaric sport…But I know those that do…so can’t say any-more because of possible retribution; just know I don’t take part!!!”

It’s the end of yet another hunting season and despite the Hunting Act 2004 making it illegal to hunt wild mammals with dogs in England and Wales, we are still getting hundreds of calls from members of the public who are witnessing suspicious activity and havoc caused by the hunts. In our video blog below we take a look at some of the reports of havoc we’ve received and ask the question, are the hunters really abiding by the law?

We take a look back over this year’s hunting season; including our report into artificial earths, some of the havoc caused by hunts and Joe talks about our new investigators.

We began this hunting season with the publication of our report into artificial earths. Earths were historically built by hunts to provide a breeding place and home for foxes, so that the hunts could ensure they had a ready supply of foxes to hunt. Our five month investigation revealed evidence that some artificial earths had been recently renovated and food and water supplies were also found. We believe that this points to a nationwide conspiracy to encourage and sustain fox populations for the purposes of hunting. Read the full report…

As the hunting season got underway the crimewatch calls began flooding in. Of the hundreds of calls received, nearly 20% were describing some kind of havoc caused by the ‘trail hunting’ which was taking place. From hounds running riot through people’s gardens, livestock and pets being attacked to hounds being killed and our monitors being attacked.

The League receives the same reports every season and we think it’s high time that hunts are held accountable for these blatant infringements of the law. In December last year the Master of the North Shropshire Hunt said; “We were out trail hunting…when we lost the hounds. It was a freak accident and won’t happen again.”  Surely if this was such a freak incident then we wouldn’t be seeing ‘accidents’ year after year. Watch the video blog to find out more…

It’s not just foxes, deer and hares which need your protection. The fox hunting season may be over but we’re now nearly a month into the mink hunting season and we need your help to catch any illegal activity. If you have information on an upcoming hunt or if you see any suspicious activity please contact our crimewatch team on 01483 524250 or complete ouronline form.

Uploaded by LACS1924 on 24 Apr 2012

We take a look back over this year’s hunting season; including our report into artificial earths, some of the havoc caused by hunts and Joe talks about our new investigators.