tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684843.post6869235743373537469..comments2024-03-26T22:16:26.572-04:00Comments on Terrierman's Daily Dose: Record Numbers in the HedgePBurnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05781540805883519064noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684843.post-41449632019217142322015-01-23T13:11:51.244-05:002015-01-23T13:11:51.244-05:00THANKS for the update Dan! If only they had as mu...THANKS for the update Dan! If only they had as much concern about the badgers are the cattle!<br /><br />http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/may/15/gas-badger-sett-tests<br />PBurnshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05781540805883519064noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684843.post-50014685016647659262015-01-23T09:17:26.597-05:002015-01-23T09:17:26.597-05:00Actually, the situation with badgers is a little m...Actually, the situation with badgers is a little more complex. Back in the late 1990s, the Labour Party, then headed by a certain Tony Blair, had some problems, chief of which was how to prevent the members of this party from losing another election. Doing this took money, so Blair took donations from a wide range of dubious sources.<br /><br />One such source was an animal rights organisation, which wanted to see an end to the gassing of badgers. True to his word, Blair phased this out and in response, the badger population boomed. Lagging slightly behind, the levels of bovine tuberculosis in the badger population also boomed, going from a very minor problem controlled by targeted gassing, to the major epidemic we have today.<br /><br />Current efforts to control this epidemic are limited to shooting badgers, a control tactic only eclipsed in stupidity by the vaccination of badgers against bTB, (which DEFRA have demonstrated doesn't prevent infection of badgers by TB).<br /><br />A Mexican stand-off has now ensued in the South-West of Britain, between well-meaning protesters angry at the killing of badgers, and pretty much everyone else in the area who think that they are a plague and would love to see the back of them. In addition to these measures, there is a low level of illegal badger digging, some shooting and likely a certain amount of badger poisoning going on as well, helped by the fact that a sick badger generally goes home to its burrow to try to sleep off a sickness, and thus dies out of sight underground.<br /><br />Methyl bromide gas has been banned. Hydrogen cyanide has been banned, as has Cymag (sodium cyanide powder plus a weak acid). Carbon monoxide gassing hasn't yet been banned, and is the candidate gas of choice, whenever DEFRA cease sitting on their hands and decide to tackle the problem properly. Danhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02618328278732100203noreply@blogger.com