When it comes to badger culling, Liz Truss and DEFRA appear to have a high embarrassment threshold and scant regard for scientific evidence. This enabled them to plough on with the irrational badger cull again this year in the face of criticism from the public, and indeed eminent scientists. No matter what evidence is put in front of them, Truss and her team continue to insist that the millions being spent on badger culling is absolutely necessary to deal with the bTB crisis in cattle. As far as DEFRA and the NFU are concerned, badgers are the enemy.
Truss is on record stating her commitment to further cull roll-outs, and NFU president Meurig Raymond is already hailing this year’s culls a success, despite the fact the results haven’t been announced yet.
Such confidence suggested that they knew something the public did not. Perhaps every badger culled in 2015 had bTB and DEFRA was going to announce this imminently? After all, logic would suggest that all culled badgers would have to be tested and examined for bTB. How else could DEFRA justify their anti-badger stance? Moreover, given the millions of pounds of tax payer’s money spent on the badger cull, DEFRA would want to show the public just how rigorous the whole culling project had been, wouldn’t they?
As you can see from the FOI request below, the answer is no, they would not. ZERO badgers culled in 2015 were tested or examined for bTB.
DEFRA and the NFU have been pointing the finger at badgers for years. The government has spent millions of pounds of tax payer’s money on a cruel and inhumane culling program in order to address a crisis in the farming industry. So why on earth would they shy away from the opportunity to test these culled badgers? What are they afraid of?
This latest admission is humiliating for DEFRA. It speaks volumes about their agenda, which has never been based on scientific evidence. Given their recent budget cut it is impossible to believe that even Liz Truss can continue to justify spending public money on culls which are blatantly just a costly distraction from what could really help the bTB crisis in cattle. It is also highly unlikely that the tax paying public will stand for this any longer.
