The BIG Game Hunting & Poaching Thread

[forficula]

Another culling report ...

The big question: Should badgers be culled to prevent the spread of tuberculosis in cattle?

This is right on my doorstep Dan,and I'm afraid that the cull is the only way forward given our present knowledge.The animals rights folks are trying to distort the truth by trying to compare different data sets but facts is facts. My belief is that the short term pain will pay dividends.Forget any argument about who infects who for a minute,both sets[no pun intended] of animals suffer from TB which spreads like wildfire.On the one hand the economic loss to Ireland and the UK is enormous and the poor old badgers don't exactly thrive on living with TB.This disease is a feature of overcrowding in the human population too in these parts, and our damp climate is no big help.

[May Yin]

Another culling report ...

The big question: Should badgers be culled to prevent the spread of tuberculosis in cattle?

This is right on my doorstep Dan,and I'm afraid that the cull is the only way forward given our present knowledge.The animals rights folks are trying to distort the truth by trying to compare different data sets but facts is facts. My belief is that the short term pain will pay dividends.Forget any argument about who infects who for a minute,both sets[no pun intended] of animals suffer from TB which spreads like wildfire.On the one hand the economic loss to Ireland and the UK is enormous and the poor old badgers don't exactly thrive on living with TB.This disease is a feature of overcrowding in the human population too in these parts, and our damp climate is no big help.

The ONLY way Forfi?

12,000 is a really high number. How did this start anyway? The report seems to indicate that the problem's been there for more than a decade or two.

[forficula]

May ,I always like to respond to posts but sometime it takes a while.The question of Badgers/TB/Cattle is an emotional one and I can see all the sides in the argument or debate have a certain merit.But consider this.I drove some 30 miles yesterday and I saw 3 dead badgers by the road-side.The law of the land is that all of these poor dead animals should be collected ASP and checked for TB.Our Veterinary Inspectors are legally obliged to stop their cars at the sight of a dead badger and do a check or to act on reports from the public ASP.Point is that i only see a fraction of the road killed badgers,how many are actually killed each night? I just hate to think that a cull is the only way to do things but all the other methods have failed to reduce their numbers and for reasons that I can't explain these numbers are beyond the optimum.I feel that something has gone wrong and that the normal population balances have failed.Maybe in time some catastrophe of a natural nature would kick in and restore the balance but meanwhile TB is the problem and I would not to be responsible for standing in the way of preventing this from spreading and killing someone's baby.

[Danial]

May ,I always like to respond to posts but sometime it takes a while.The question of Badgers/TB/Cattle is an emotional one and I can see all the sides in the argument or debate have a certain merit.But consider this.I drove some 30 miles yesterday and I saw 3 dead badgers by the road-side.The law of the land is that all of these poor dead animals should be collected ASP and checked for TB.Our Veterinary Inspectors are legally obliged to stop their cars at the sight of a dead badger and do a check or to act on reports from the public ASP.Point is that i only see a fraction of the road killed badgers,how many are actually killed each night? I just hate to think that a cull is the only way to do things but all the other methods have failed to reduce their numbers and for reasons that I can't explain these numbers are beyond the optimum.I feel that something has gone wrong and that the normal population balances have failed.Maybe in time some catastrophe of a natural nature would kick in and restore the balance but meanwhile TB is the problem and I would not to be responsible for standing in the way of preventing this from spreading and killing someone's baby.

Hmmm so the badger population isn't normal. Human population way outnumbers badger population and that isn't normal either mate. This is not equating human lives vs badger lives, just want to put a little perspective to the situation, mate. Unless badgers are part of the natural biodiversity over there, it could only mean badgers are an invasive specie, eh?

[May Yin]

I sort of understand what you are saying Forfi, but culling seems very excessive to me. Especially since we breed as wildly as the badgers. And we don't know what sort of sickness we bring to the animals that we don't even know about. It is just sad, and the feeling seems hopeless. I saw how that affected many fowl creatures around the region in light of the bird flu virus. It is not their fault that they got the virus in the first place.

[Danial]

I was at a dealer / wholesaler convention, there were many seemingly exotic products from animals like aligator skins, some spotted pelts from some animals, horns and antlers and stuff etc. I think poaching is still rampant, and few gives a damn.

[JassFahd]

I was at a dealer / wholesaler convention, there were many seemingly exotic products from animals like aligator skins, some spotted pelts from some animals, horns and antlers and stuff etc. I think poaching is still rampant, and few gives a damn.

The convention didn't happen to be in Africa, would it?

[Eco Man]

Update on the badger cull in the UK.

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/42665/story.htm

[May Yin]

China's move to restart tiger parts trade will encourage poachers, says expert

Washington, June 25 (ANI): Tigers in China face a renewed threat in the wake of the government deciding to reopen trade in tiger parts.

According to Wang Wei, an official attached with the Department of Wildlife Conservation of the State Forestry Administration, dead tiger parts should not be allowed to go waste.

"It will be a waste if the resources of dead tigers are not used for traditional medicine," the China Daily quoted Wang Wei, as saying.

The announcement comes after Chinese proposals to raise captive tigers for trade were rejected at last week's meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

Reacting to this latest development in China, tiger expert Monirul Khan has warned that this would encourage poachers and the belief in traditional Chinese medicine, which has no scientific basis.

Khan of Jahangirnagar University in Dhaka, Bangladesh, is working to minimise tiger-human conflict in the Sunderbans, and he has been advocating the 'use of pet dogs' as an effective medium for reducing tiger attacks.

In a report compiled for the Save the Tiger Fund and published this week, he estimates tiger numbers in the Bangladeshi part of the Sunderbans at around 200, more or less the same as it has been for 20 years.

With the Indian Sunderbans home to some 100 to 150 tigers, the forest represents one of the largest unfragmented populations in the world.

"The terrain is very rough, so the tigers have natural protection," Khan says. (ANI)

http://in.news.yahoo.com/070625/139/6hcjd.html

[Danial]

Pressure to Kill Wolves Mounting Across the Western USA

WASHINGTON, DC, July 10, 2007 (ENS) – Twelve years after reintroducing gray wolves to the Northern Rockies, the federal government has announced a plan that allows many of these same wolves and their offspring to be killed.

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jul2007/2007-07-10-01.asp