Save the Badgers - Updated

A subject which will get Brits foaming at the mouth is the culling of badgers by shooters contracted by the government.  The justification for the cull is that badgers serve as a reservoir for bovine TB which has been a great problem here.  The efficacy of this method of controlling the disease is what gets people foaming at the mouth with those opposed to it saying that cattle should be vaccinated rather than killing the badgers.  The government says very little and continues blithely onward with over eight hundred badgers killed in one pilot program and numbers unknown for others.

Both sides call on their 'science' as proof that one method is superior to the other but there is so much emotion on the subject that it's become quite similar to the way people protest GMO food.  It would be no surprise to hear those opposed to GMO food claiming they have science that proves eating it will make children's eyes explode.  People use 'Facebook science' as justification for just about anything but that has no more to do with proper scientific method than, well, social networks have anything to do with human interaction when actually such networks are more destructive of such interaction than anything since bubonic plague.

For my part, it burns my ass that any creature from "The Wind in the Willows" is getting capped by the government.  Mister Badger was one of my favorites, maybe second only to Mister Toad who I dearly loved.  It may well be my thinking about badgers comes from the same place as others in England as I doubt many kids grow up here without reading the book.  In my family, reading "The Wind in the Willows" all through by yourself was what it took to prove you were now a big kid rather than a baby and this was how you would win a watch from my parents.

Hopefully you'll permit a bit of an aside at this point as I was the oldest kid in the family and was the first to read the book.  As it happened, my birthday came up right after completing this momentous task and my parents presented my with a bloody great box.  At that age, a bloody great box starts all manner of avaricious thinking in the head of a kid.  However, when I opened it I found another box.  Inside that box I found yet another one and this continued until I had a big pile of wrapping and one last tiny little box.  Inside that was my watch but, by that time, it could have been solid gold and it wouldn't have impressed me.

Tip to parents:  don't ever do this to a kid as it will make the greedy little bastard want to stab you!

So, as to whether the badger cull is warranted, how the hell do I know.  What I do know is that badgers are cute little animals and killing them really sucks.  They can be destructive in undermining buildings but so do bankers and nobody culls them.

One thing that amused me was a commentary from Brian May, guitarist for Queen, as he was looking to be in need of culling.  He has a huge mop of grey hair but dresses like a businessman and looks just about as ridiculous as anyone could possibly get.  So, get over it, Brian.  We all hate it that Freddie is dead but he's been gone for quite a long time now.


Update:

Germany and Switzerland have been highly successful in eliminating bTB (bovine TB) and it was through culling cattle rather than any intermediate creatures.  It's also been observed in British Columbia that the only effective way to treat the disease is the cull the affected cattle.  It's looking suspiciously like the badgers are being killed as a cost measure and is not the most effective way to control it.  More to come as this warrants further research.