Appeal over badgers killed on Tyrone roads as minister proposes cull

AN increase in the number of badgers knocked down and killed on roads in Tyrone over the last few weeks has sparked an appeal from the PSNI to report the casualties.

In a social media post, the police in Mid Ulster called on drivers to report the deaths of badgers to the Department of Agriculture. The police said the department’s officials will “organise the safe disposal and help reduce the spread of the disease to livestock”.

The appeal attracted a large number of responses, with people reporting dead badgers on roadsides across the Dungannon, Coalisland and Pomeroy areas.

Meanwhile, the Environment Minister Edwin Poots told the Assembly last week, he wanted to see a badger cull as part of efforts to combat bovine Tuberculosis (bTB), which has attracted criticism from campaign groups.

He said, “This is not the wholescale removal of badgers across Northern Ireland. It is not the eradication of badgers. It is not a shooting free-for-all and it is not anti-badger. It is a targeted intervention limited to those specific areas where badgers may play a significant role in the maintenance of bTB in cattle.”

USPCA chief executive, Brendan Mullan, described any proposed cull as “completely unacceptable and unjustifiable”.

He said, “We have pointed repeatedly to roadkill statistics and DAERA’s own TVR research project which indicates that four out of five badgers do not have TB. The Department’s actions will see the killing of thousands of healthy badgers and will be seen as nothing other than a wildlife catastrophe for Northern Ireland.

“We are of the view that this decision lacks the adoption of emerging science and research in tackling the disease. Ultimately, a much more proportionate and humane approach is Trap, Vaccinate or Remove (TVR) – DAERA’s own research project demonstrated that this is an effective mechanism to reducing TB in badgers, with prevalence reduced from 14 per-cent to less than two per-cent.

“We are disappointed that this has been rejected on the basis of cost in favour of free shooting.”