# The Badger Cull (UK) **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 24, 2014, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-badger-cull-uk/689170 "2014-05-24T09:30:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![blindboyard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindboyard/32/2833_2.png) [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-badger-cull-uk/689170/1 "2014-05-24T09:30:41Z")
Today I received a leaflet through my door asking me to vote out the Tories next year because of their aversion to badgers. For foreigners from countries not possessed of badgers, the badger is a large and vicious rodent, capable of tearing a dog apart with its large digging claws in the badger-baiting pit or taking off a man’s hand with its powerful jaws in a boxing ring. Traditionally feasting on baby rabbits and the vermiform inhabitants of their chthonic realm, badgers are a traditional children’s favourite to be seen in such children’s television programmes as “Bodger and Badger”. Now, however, the badger faces a new threat. Due to recent changes in the law the aristocracy, distinguishable from humans by their weak chins and bright red coats, have been deprived of their traditional pass-times of hunting foxes on horseback and raping children in the Channel Islands. Now they have the badger in their sights. The Tory government have started a programme to cull the badger populations in the South West of England, supposedly to reduce the spread of Bovine TB. Not reverse, mind, just reduce. The plan was to kill most of the badgers in Somerset and Gloucerstershire, but has failed miserably killing far less than half, while the plan relied on killing at least 70%. One reason such a large number had to be killed was to stop numbers of infected badgers from spreading the infection to neighbouring areas. The cull was supposed to reduce the cost of compensation payments to farmers, but has cost as much as would be saved, if the plan had been as successful as the government hoped, in thirty years. Part of the absurd cost was a repressive, heavy-handed police presence because of the public opposition amongst non-farmers. Farmers love only two things, death and public expenditure, and therefore largely supported the cull. It also saves the problem of vaccinating the cattle, which would be a solution with the advantage of actually being effective but the disadvantage of requiring farmers to do some work rather than battening on hand-outs and ravening for blood. The cull, therefore, is ineffective; expensive; opposed by the majority of the public; cruel to animals; and, soon to be expanded across the country. Vote Badger! ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-badger-cull-uk/689170/2 "2014-05-24T11:24:22Z")
- Mustelid. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-badger-cull-uk/689170/3 "2014-05-24T11:44:01Z")
I wll vote badger everytime! ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-badger-cull-uk/689170/4 "2014-05-24T11:44:17Z")
Vaccination is only being trialed this year and is not yet known to be effective. Furthermore vaccinated cattle cannot be distinguished from cattle which have contracted TB from wild animals. All animals which are TB positive must be destroyed including those vaccinated. Here in NZ the opossum carries TB and there are multi-millions of them in our native bush. They are Australian imports. Opossums are killed whenever and whereever possible. We use 1080 poison. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-badger-cull-uk/689170/5 "2014-05-24T15:40:20Z")
These badgers, are they edible? ---
**Author:** ![PaulParkhead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@PaulParkhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PaulParkhead)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-badger-cull-uk/689170/6 "2014-05-24T15:50:03Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > These badgers, are they edible? Yes, [apparently so](http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2012/sep/25/eating-badger-a-sett-menu). But it’s not legal to just catch one and kill it. ---
**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-badger-cull-uk/689170/7 "2014-05-24T15:55:48Z")
> [@blindboyard](#): > > Today I received a leaflet through my door asking me to vote out the Tories next year because of their aversion to badgers. > > For foreigners from countries not possessed of badgers, the badger is a large and vicious rodent, capable of tearing a dog apart with its large digging claws in the badger-baiting pit or taking off a man’s hand with its powerful jaws in a boxing ring. Traditionally feasting on baby rabbits and the vermiform inhabitants of their chthonic realm, badgers are a traditional children’s favourite to be seen in such children’s television programmes as “Bodger and Badger”. > > Now, however, the badger faces a new threat. Due to recent changes in the law the aristocracy, distinguishable from humans by their weak chins and bright red coats, have been deprived of their traditional pass-times of hunting foxes on horseback and raping children in the Channel Islands. Now they have the badger in their sights. > > The Tory government have started a programme to cull the badger populations in the South West of England, supposedly to reduce the spread of Bovine TB. Not reverse, mind, just reduce. > > The plan was to kill most of the badgers in Somerset and Gloucerstershire, but has failed miserably killing far less than half, while the plan relied on killing at least 70%. One reason such a large number had to be killed was to stop numbers of infected badgers from spreading the infection to neighbouring areas. > > The cull was supposed to reduce the cost of compensation payments to farmers, but has cost as much as would be saved, if the plan had been as successful as the government hoped, in thirty years. > > Part of the absurd cost was a repressive, heavy-handed police presence because of the public opposition amongst non-farmers. Farmers love only two things, death and public expenditure, and therefore largely supported the cull. It also saves the problem of vaccinating the cattle, which would be a solution with the advantage of actually being effective but the disadvantage of requiring farmers to do some work rather than battening on hand-outs and ravening for blood. > > The cull, therefore, is > ineffective; > expensive; > opposed by the majority of the public; > cruel to animals; and, > soon to be expanded across the country. > > Vote Badger! The cull experiment has been abandoned as inconclusive and will not be carried out again. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-badger-cull-uk/689170/8 "2014-05-24T17:37:04Z")
They should bring in some SNAAAKES! SNAAAKES! SNAAAAAAAAKES! Or Dachshunds. You don’t provide a link, but I can’t imagine that badger culling is in the top 100 planks of the national or local Conservative Party platform. If you want to vote the Tories out, you’ve got many more cromulent reasons to argue, this seems disingenuous and sketchy. ineffective and expensive? Maybe. But the other reasons are emotional or visceral, not factual. P.S. Honey badgers aren’t terribly closely related to badgers, and I have it on good authority that the latter **DO** give a shit. They’re the cowardly black sheep cousins. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-badger-cull-uk/689170/9 "2014-05-24T17:38:42Z")
Hey, they don’t need no stinkin’ badgers. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-badger-cull-uk/689170/10 "2014-05-25T01:39:47Z")
To someone who lives in North America where wild bears, cougars, wolves, elk, moose, deer, and feral boar are to be found, referring to a badger as “large” is laughable. The tradition of hunting a single fox by dozens of mounted men with dogs is testament to the pathetic state of “game” in the Isles. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-badger-cull-uk/689170/11 "2014-05-25T01:46:05Z")
Any policy that results in Brian May covering “Badger badger badger badger” can’t be all bad. ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-badger-cull-uk/689170/12 "2014-05-25T03:16:39Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > Any policy that results in Brian May covering “Badger badger badger badger” can’t be all bad. LOL didn’t know about that. Hilarious for those who know Badger Badger. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-badger-cull-uk/689170/13 "2014-05-25T05:46:21Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > - Mustelid. Yeah. My brain just about shut off when the OP called them rodents…we don’t even _have_ badgers here and I know which family they belong in. It makes me want to spearhead an outreach campaign to teach people that rabbits, raccoons, hares, ferrets, mink, and fisher cats are not rodents, dammit. Learn about leporidae and mustelidae, people! ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-badger-cull-uk/689170/14 "2014-05-25T09:18:01Z")
> [@Ken001](#): > > VHere in NZ the opossum carries TB and there are multi-millions of them in our native bush. There are no opossums in NZ. Possums, sure, but no opossums. Very, very different animals. ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-badger-cull-uk/689170/15 "2014-05-25T11:17:25Z")
Ah - ok, I knew they were different but turns out they are really different. Apologies, ignorance fought. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-badger-cull-uk/689170/16 "2014-05-25T11:25:12Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > - Mustelid. Well you’re a fucking hominid. ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-badger-cull-uk/689170/17 "2014-05-25T11:30:23Z")
> [@Bozuit](#): > > Well you’re a fucking hominid. Is this an obscure joke? Or just obscure. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-badger-cull-uk/689170/18 "2014-05-25T11:36:18Z")
> [@Bozuit](#): > > Well you’re a fucking hominid. Guilty on both counts. ---
**Author:** ![blindboyard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindboyard/32/2833_2.png) [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-badger-cull-uk/689170/19 "2014-05-25T11:45:05Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > To someone who lives in North America where wild bears, cougars, wolves, elk, moose, deer, and feral boar are to be found, referring to a badger as “large” is laughable. The tradition of hunting a single fox by dozens of mounted men with dogs is testament to the pathetic state of “game” in the Isles. We have deer. Wild or feral goats, ponies, cattle. Feral wild boar, too, in some places. Occasional wallabies. Recently a rhea. Posh people just don’t seem to like foxes. ---
**Author:** ![blindboyard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindboyard/32/2833_2.png) [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-badger-cull-uk/689170/20 "2014-05-25T11:47:40Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Yeah. My brain just about shut off when the OP called them rodents…we don’t even _have_ badgers here and I know which family they belong in. It makes me want to spearhead an outreach campaign to teach people that rabbits, raccoons, hares, ferrets, mink, and fisher cats are not rodents, dammit. Learn about leporidae and mustelidae, people! Unless you’re a panelist on QI, those are rodents. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-badger-cull-uk/689170.md?page=2)