THE KILLING of 7,000 Irish badgers last year to prevent the spread of bovine TB has been described as a “brutal pogrom” by Badgerwatch Ireland.
The group has called on Minister for the Environment John Gormley to halt the snaring and killing of the animals.
“Latest figures released by the Department of Agriculture show that almost 7,000 badgers were slaughtered by department trappers in 2008,” said Badgerwatch.
“Close on 30,000 ‘reactor’ cattle failed to pass the TB skin test for the same period, indicating a rise in TB levels over the previous six years,” it said.
Badgerwatch Ireland said that in the last decade, more than 50,000 badgers had been killed by the department in “slaughter masquerading as science”.
Last week the Department of Agriculture issued figures showing a 20 per cent decline in the number of cattle failing the bovine TB test this year.
It announced that a programme for vaccinating badgers against bovine TB had shown promising results and would continue.