Badgers

[archbishop_josh]

Guys,

It would seem 'the man' is about to kill shit loads of badgers!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7056501.stm

As these little creatures are a major factor in the popularity of this website i think 'tis appropriate we do some thing about it.

All be it that something being simply posting in this thread going "omgz thay cant dew that!".

Thoughts on the badger cull?

[Swedey]

Burn them all I say. Anything that gets between me and a burger is my enemy.

[crazy-eye0]

The problem we are up against is everyone has the image of lovely, fluffy badgers galloping about, but cows are also entitled to lives
That's a bit of a contradiction of his own point. he's pretty much saying that cows are entitled to live, but we should kill all the badgers because they all deserve to die.

Honestly in my opinion, despite my love of Badgers, I think if they do spread TB and whatnot, then maybe there should be a cull, but I don't like the idea of a mass killing of animals, I doubt it would be possible to contain thousands of Badgers though...

[ZekeyLizard]

Clearly, there is only one solution to this problem:

http://www.cites.org/gallery/speciespics/green_tree_python.jpg

[Feawen]

Thing is, when you kill off a ton of one type of animal, surely there's a big upheaval in the food web?

I notice they say it would be effective on motorways - i.e., "run them over everybody!" But as my dad said to me when starting to drive, if you hit one of them they'll walk off and look strangely at your big badger shaped hole where there was a bonnet. Ha.

I don't like the idea of killing a lot of animals. And as the featured comment said on the article by someone said, why don't they inoculate the cattle instead of killing badgers?

[Swedey]

I don't like the idea of killing a lot of animals. And as the featured comment said on the article by someone said, why don't they inoculate the cattle instead of killing badgers?

Innoculating thousands of cattle that will soon be slaughtered wouldn't be economically viable.

[Svelter]

We should all feed them to fat ppl

lol how random was that

[Mittwoch]

To be fair, badgers really aren't all that cute and fluffy. I mean, they look it, but in a polar bear-esque way - in reality they're pretty damn big and vicious. I wouldn't want to bump into one in a dark alleyway (or anywhere else for that matter).

It looks that any action that could be taken would be uneconomical - innoculation makes no sense financially and badger culls would have to be on a tremendous scale according to that article. Looks like they're just running round in circles trying to do something for the sake of action!

[Hydralisk]

How about a bit of both? Innoculation for the cattle in lesser affected areas and Badger culling in the more severely affected areas? Or vice versa?

But in all honesty, I'm sure that badgers can't be the only source of TB (or whatever), surely there must be another vector? Or at least another way for Farmers to prevent the Badgers reaching the Cattle?

[Dr S]

I don't like the idea of killing a lot of animals. And as the featured comment said on the article by someone said, why don't they inoculate the cattle instead of killing badgers?

There is no inoculation against bTB. - It would cost the goverment tens of millions to even start looking for one.

I'm not sure about the cull however, mainly cos I don't think they're enough evidence that they pass the disease - however there is a definate link to badgers in a bTB area.
The effects however on farmers is devistating and one cow contracting the disease means the farmer is pratically ruined.

[Elbowman-iac]

Leave EVERYTHING be. Everything. Especially badgers.

[Mister Qwerty]

It's just a fact of nature. I'm sick of people, especially the government, trying to change that it's just plain stupid to. Badgers spread TB. Black widow spiders are the deadliest on Earth (or something), but the government don't order a mass cull of them.

[Swedey]

It's just a fact of nature. I'm sick of people, especially the government, trying to change that it's just plain stupid to. Badgers spread TB. Black widow spiders are the deadliest on Earth (or something), but the government don't order a mass cull of them.

Black widow spiders aren't killing lots of cows. And they don't hang around the UK much either.

[Mister Qwerty]

You raise a fair point. *Mutters something about technicalities*

Foxes kill chickens, then.

[Swedey]

We could hunt badgers for sport instead of foxes I suppose.

[Mister Qwerty]

Hmm...that would make father most proud of oneself...

[Rikco the Robot]

Black widow spiders aren't killing lots of cows. And they don't hang around the UK much either.

Black Widow Spiders, however, do kill a lotta humans, and although they don't hang around the UK, they are found in most of Northern America. Just because it's not our country doesn't mean people's lives aren't at stake.

Another thing is, they have no proof (good proof) that badgers actually spread TB to cows. Maybe lock a badger and a cow in a room for a few weeks and see what happens?

[Swedey]

Black Widow Spiders, however, do kill a lotta humans, and although they don't hang around the UK, they are found in most of Northern America. Just because it's not our country doesn't mean people's lives aren't at stake.


Actually, they don't kill a lot of humans at all :eng101:

[Evilpigeon]

maybe =S what to dooo =S

[AngryPaul]

Just because it's not our country doesn't mean people's lives aren't at stake.But we'll pretend like its not a problem until it directly effects us. :)

[Dr S]

You raise a fair point. *Mutters something about technicalities*

Foxes kill chickens, then.

Foxes killing chickens doesn't bankrupt farmers and cause the goverment millions each year