TB in Badgers and Cattle - Everyone is Losing
18 January 2001
'We are in a no win situation. I have worked for 40 years to help eradicate disease but TB is now worse than it was when I started.' While the government had tried, through its TB panel, to bring the interested parties together, the NFU had resigned in dismay at the intransigence of badger support groups. More recently the House of Commons Agriculture Committee had criticised the slow progress of the badger TB trials.
Rather than the ongoing entrenched 'no surrender' stances Mr Anthony felt that 'some radical, even lateral thinking was long overdue. As yet', he said 'we are not thinking positively about the badger. Why can't we treat TB in the badger to protect these creatures, which hold such a special place in the UK's psyche? Or, as has been suggested by our relevant division, the British Cattle Veterinary Association (BCVA), what about ear-marking areas of low cattle density for badger set-aside?' While of the view that 'It would not be long before mass slaughter programmes, of any animal, would be unacceptable to the British public', Mr Anthony was concerned that 'livestock seemed less relevant than wildlife. 40 years ago we could put a man on the moon but in less than 40 years time we could have no dairy cattle in this country on present trends. 'We are going nowhere at the present rate and the patience of farmers is being sorely tested. Radical thinking, not least by government, is long overdue.'