Examination of Witnesses (Questions 80-81)
MR TIM
BENNETT, MR
MEURIG RAYMOND,
MR DAVID
WILLIAMS, AND
MR TREVOR
LAWSON
7 FEBRUARY 2006
Q80 Mr Drew: Can I ask the Badger Trust,
what is your worst option in terms of all these measures and what
is the least worst?
Mr Lawson: I am afraid our honest
answer to that is that we do not think any of the measures are
acceptable from a welfare point of view because each of them has
its own particular horrible consequence. I am afraid I could not
disagree more strongly with Tim Bennett on this, when he talks
about gassing being an easy, straightforward option, in the Thornbury
Trial which was carried out in the 1970s it took seven years to
gas the badgers across 100 square kilometres, seven years of repeat
gassing. Once you extend that to the vast areas currently covered
by TB you are on a hiding to nothing, but not only that, badgers
are not just on farms they are in private woodlands, they are
in private gardens, they are in steep wooded river valleys that
you cannot get easy access to, so the practicalities of gassing
are pretty limited. There is also a really challenging welfare
issue with gassing which Dr Cheeseman has already referred to,
which is that you cannot get the gas right into the setts. One
of the consequences of that is that you end up with some badgers
getting hypoxia, they get a lack of oxygen to the brain and they
suffer brain damage. I am sorry to be cynical about this, but
we think that the reason why the farming industry favours gassing
is because there is a view that what cannot be seen will not hurt.
In other words, if all these badgers are dying underground there
will not be an objection to that. I remember when I was a kid
seeing on Nationwide, the news programme, people being
dragged away from protests about gassing when it was being carried
out by the State and I cannot see any reason why that would not
happen again. We certainly would not be advocating any illegal
practice on the part of the people who oppose gassing, but I cannot
see that that would be avoided.
Q81 Chairman: We can draw a conclusion
from the two sets of comments that there does need to be a question
in here about various security aspects, and it is a missing dimension
to this particular inquiry. Thank you both very much indeed. You
have given us your own special perspectives and we are very grateful
to you. The Committee will reflect very carefully on the evidence
we have received and it may be that we will want to say something
more about our conclusions on this, but we need a little time
for further thought. Thank you very much indeed for your written
evidence and for your contributions this afternoon, we much appreciate
it.
Mr Bennett: Thank you, Chairman.
If there is any more evidence that you would wish to ask us, please
ask and we will supply it.
Chairman: Thank you very much.
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