This is our response:
It was disappointing, but perhaps not surprising, to see Simon Barnes make no effort to provide any balance as he shared his one-sided thoughts on the badger culls (Sunday Times Magazine, October 2, p7).
The badger culls are part of a comprehensive Government strategy to control and eradicate a disease which currently costs around £100 million a year. They are based on the best available evidence and scientific advice. The Chief Vet has said culling is an essential part of that strategy and that proactive badger control is currently the best available option. Yet Mr Barnes makes no mention of any of this.
To claim that the culls continue in defiance of the evidence shows a complete lack of knowledge of the issue. The biggest scientific trial of its kind – the Randomised Badger Culling Trial – showed that culling badgers can have a positive impact on reducing bovine TB in cattle in areas where the disease is endemic.
It’s also disappointing to see Mr Barnes reiterating that it costs nearly £7,000 to kill each badger. Not only is this figure hugely wide of the mark but it also incorporates policing costs which have nothing to do with the cull and everything to do with ensuring people who are prepared to go to any lengths to stop what is a legal and licensed activity from taking place are not allowed to do so.
The people involved in the culls aren’t taking part to satisfy a deep, irrational urge, despite what Mr Barnes might like to think. They are doing it as part of science-based, Government disease control policy to help control a disease which last year saw more than 28,000 cattle culled in England and affected nearly 4,000 new herds.
The Sunday Times seems more than happy to continually allow its columnists to present one side of this story without any concern for balance, accuracy or the facts. Its readers – and the farming community involved in a daily battle against this devastating disease – deserve much better.
Meurig Raymond
NFU President