Sir, - Anyone who watched the recent BBC 2 documentary Badgers - the Culling Fields will now be aware of the seemingly unnecessary killing of badgers in the name of science, and will also have been dismayed at the blind belief of farmers that the only cause of Bovine TB is the badger. Here in Ireland over the past six years 13,542 badgers have been snared and then killed on the instruction of the Department of Agriculture.
Ironically, these killings have been permitted by the issuing of licences to the Department by the Minister of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands who has the statutory obligation under the Wildlife Act to protect the Badger. Presently there are over 400 square kilometres being officially cleansed of all badgers using the snare. Snaring is forbidden in the UK and also by the Council of Europe's Berne Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats, to which Ireland is a signatory. While this killing is being vigorously pursued by the Department of Agriculture, there appears to be an almost total disregard for good animal husbandry to avoid the passing of TB spores from bovine to bovine through rigorous control, which, as the chief veterinary officer for the UK Ministry of Agriculture stated in the BBC programme, is one of the most likely causes of the spread of bovine TB.
It is widely known in rural Ireland that there is also widespread killing of badgers, using the most cruel methods, by farmers who have been inadvertently spurred on by the example set by the Department. It is to be wondered how Ms de Valera can justify her own Department's duplicity in encouraging this unwarranted slaughter which is being conducted with her compliance and permission. - Yours, etc.,
Roderick Murphy, Skeaghvasteen, Co Kilkenny.