APPENDIX 5
Memorandum submitted by Mr Thomas Hawkins,
Thomas R Hawkins (Farms) Ltd (P5)
Very little information reaches the farming
community about the "progress" of the Krebs trial. Our
own farm at Bosbury is in an elimination area, and so we are aware
that DEFRA operatives have visited in order to cull badgers.
With this reduction in numbers I am not expecting
to have any reactors in our herd during 2003. Time will tell.
Information should be compiled as to the cost
of the 1992 Badger Act:
— To the Government in compensating
for reactors.
— To farmers in the frequent handling
of stock for test.
— To farmers for the disruption to
production and cashflow.
— To highway authorities for remaking
roads undermined by badgers and other such items.
— To DEFRA vet department in maintaining
such a huge and sick population of badgers in the country, let
alone these farcical Krebs trials.
Badger numbers and incidence of bovine TB have
gone up steadily from the point in 1992 when the Act came in.
Plot each of these items against the year.
Now Krebs have started, presumably 30-40% of
the affected areas have been culled out. So let's see the effect
over the next 12-24 months of incidence of bovine TB. Most farmers
and rural vets are confidently expecting a proportionate drop.
If this drop is achieved, no more time should
be wasted. A humane routine to cull badgers should be described,
and permitted. By all means combine an academic study of the disease;
but stop the irresponsible use of the whole countryside as a laboratory
for Prof Bourne's big budget experimentation.
Clearly, the breeding season needs to be safe-guarded
and public opinion would resist the use of dogs. There are enough
safe havens in all counties to ensure that a healthy badger population
would survive; so let us find an effective and low profile means
to do the job.
This will end the waste of public money, which
can be re-directed to other priorities, and it will end the ridiculous
and heart breaking disruption to farmer's livelihoods.
27 January 2003
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