What’s the problem?
Government is planning to carry out a cull of badgers as part of its response to stop the spread of TB in cattle. Whilst TB is a terrible disease, there’s no scientific evidence to show that culling badgers will stop the disease. Scientists who’ve worked with badgers for many years fear it could well make matters worse. The government’s now announced West Gloucestershire as a pilot site for culling but the Badger Trust is seeking a Judicial Review to try and stop the cull
How we can stop a cull happening in the Stroud District
We need to make it clear to the government that a cull would not work in the Stroud District because of the opposition of local people. When a small landowner or someone with badgers in their garden opposes the cull on their land it will be illegal for the cull to take place on that land. If enough Stroud people oppose the cull in Stroud District it will not be practical to go ahead locally. We aim to get 100 Stroud people and organisations signed up to refuse to allow a cull on their land, hence the name… the Stroud 100.
There is an alternative to culling
The Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust has recently completed a detailed report into the vaccination of badgers. They are committed to continuing this programme and would not permit the culling of the badgers in their 6 Stroud Valley nature reserves where vaccination has taken place. They are happy to work with the Stroud 100 and would be very interested to extend the vaccination programme locally with neighbours. Once we’ve got a good spread of landowners we’ll share details with them as to how we can best work with the Wildlife Trust.
The Stroud 100 are not linked to any other organisation, we’re just concerned local wildlife lovers. At the end of March we’ve got 120 local people signed up and between them they own over 1600 acres in the Stroud District including several farmers. So we’re making great progress. We still want more people to join us but we're now going to focus on making sure everyone is clear on the stance of big landowners such as the National Trust and the Church of England.
The Stroud 100 are not linked to any other organisation, we’re just concerned local wildlife lovers. At the end of March we’ve got 120 local people signed up and between them they own over 1600 acres in the Stroud District including several farmers. So we’re making great progress. We still want more people to join us but we're now going to focus on making sure everyone is clear on the stance of big landowners such as the National Trust and the Church of England.
Now we have 100 names we’ll be contacting DEFRA , Natural England and the Minister to make clear the level of local opposition and impracticality of a local cull.
Web links to some of the evidence about badgers and TB in cattle
