Sabs "interfering with traps and digging up baits"? Perish the thought they should commit an offence in the countryside.
Actually I remain unclear on the science behind this issue.
Oh I know that a case has been made in favour of the cull on the grounds of some science but frankly that's rather like saying that most rifle shooters actively prefer to have sex with supermodels or that we're the only people in the entire universe because we haven't heard from any of the others.
I'd love to learn the truth so that I can make an informed, rather than an instinctive, decision. My instinctive decision, fwiw, is that the "countryside" is not a zoo or a wildlife park, it's a managed environment and that we all have a duty to manage it responsibly and effectively. Beyond that I'd acknowledge that the whole issue of farming as a source of food production is subject to all kinds of financial pressures, subsidies and inducements which don't exist in other industries. And if badgers are acknowledged to be the possible cause of costs to farmers, how come there's no financial motivation for farmers to control other problem species such as gulls, pigeons, corvids and rats?
Oh I've read that Cwis Packham is dismayed and saddened and I know that there is a place on God's earth for instinctive (but selective) bunny huggers. Let's see him build a tv series about the underground life of rats, the domestic life of cat fleas or the charms of the seagull.
Sabs go from cause to cause. By day they're protesting against fracking, by night they're rolling around the countryside larking about in pursuit of badger cullers. I'd love to see some sab corner a badger and try to cuddle it.
I also know that in my bit of East Anglia I've seen more RTA casualty badger carcases (or are they?) in the past two years than I had in the previous ten years. I see them on the A14 where it passes through Bury St Edmunds, I see them where I wouldn't expect to see a shy, secretive animal. I'd say I see more badger carcases on the side of the road than I do any other species of mammal. I see more signs when out stalking too. Any suggestion that badgers are in decline is not 100% factually correct.
Actually I remain unclear not only on the science behind the cull but the economics too.