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BADGER-KILLING COMING

Posted on October 15, 2012 by The Team

A cull of Britain’s badgers, based on the claim by farmers that it will halt the spread of TB in cattle, is being piloted in west Gloucestershire and west Somerset, with farmers given licence to shoot them by the government’s Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.(DEFRA) If the cull does stop the spread of TB then it will be extended to other areas of the UK.

Opposing the cull the RSPCA is urging consumers to boycott milk from west Somerset and Gloucestershire farmers and to avoid visiting and thereby commercially supporting the areas.

The National Farmers Union (NFU) claims that unless it’s members were allowed to kill badgers the price of milk would go up, the same argument as used by the farming fraternity to defend factory farming.

DUCK THE ISSUE

Posted on October 15, 2012 by The Team

Meanwhile the cruelty suffered by farm-reared ducks deprived of any access to water, around two-thirds of them currently, is also giving the RSPCA cause for concern.

There are no legal requirements for ducks , which are water fowl, to be given open water to bathe in, and neither the British Poultry Council nor the National Farmers Union have sensibly made this a stipulation for humanely rearing the birds.

In a recent YouGov survey of 2,212 people more than 80% said that they had never thought about how farmed ducks were reared, and 80% that they agreed with the statement “I am appalled that ducks farmed for their meat never get access to bathing water”.