Lies, lies and statistics all the way. Outstanding, fudging, dodging and cherry picking by scientists while allowing badgers, cattle and farmers to suffer – when will it end. This brave attempt to qualify the impact of culling on bovine TB fails miserably to fool any school age child. The authors of the paper use so many variables in each area it is simply spin and pen pushing at its best reminiscent of the ‘Yes Ministers’ days of comedy (look it up).
If one variable had been used, as is the norm, we would have seen a different picture. It is time for the truth and not time to fudge and cling on to previous data. The data focused on is up to 2017 yet 2018 data shows an increase in the areas that show a reduction. Six years of culling has not seen a drop in bovine TB that can be attributed to the badgers. What is the point of printing data if you are going to put your own slant on it. Professor Ian Boyd, the government’s Chief Scientist, on his last day in office September 29th 2019, said that ‘the government data was not set up to tell if badger culling was working’ and that we would never know if badger culling has any impact on btb.
The infection is in the herd and until we get a test that works we won’t solve or get on top of btb. The current skin test is around 45% accurate – you may as well flip a coin. We don’t need statistics we need simple hard facts and the truth is the cull has never worked and isn’t working now. It divides communities, costs the tax payer dearly, cheats badgers, cheats cattle and cripples farmers. The data shows that culling isn’t working consistently in all areas. By using tests that actually find Bovine TB we can remove infectious cattle and cut the transmission root. It’s not rocket science! We don’t need guesswork, prediction, cherry picking and spin.
Anne Brummer
CEO Save Me Trust