The latest news from the badger cull is that it will be extended. Apparently they haven’t killed enough as many because there are less badgers than they estimated. The story is here on the BBC News website
There is a bit of a staggering realisation when you look at the data in this story, it means:
a) They didn’t really know how many badgers there were, despite saying otherwise (just ‘too many’ it seems).
b) Despite insisting many times that badgers were not in danger of going locally extinct, had they managed to reach the numbers to be culled based on 70% of the original estimates they would have wiped out badgers in the cull zones!:
- In west Somerset the population was estimated at 2,400. 70% of 2400 is 1680. The current estimate is now only 1450!
- In Gloucestershire the population was estimated at 3,400. 70% of 2380. The current estimate is now only 2,350!
That’s 240 badgers less than the 70% target!
That’s 30 badgers less than the 70% target!
What are the clowns at DEFRA doing culling with out accurate population estimates!? They have ended up trying to cull more badgers than there are there to cull! Had free shooting been effective, badgers would now be extinct the cull zones! I guess the NFU and Owen Paterson would be happy, but its a shocking oversight by DEFRA and the sort of thing where heads would roll, if this government actually cared about wildlife, something which I doubt very much….
But worse may be yet to come, as I suggested at the start of the cull, the whole free shooting may just be a front to convince the public that gassing is the only option…
