Sunday, August 08, 2010
Correspondence with Private Eye
Leading anti-badger cull activist, Derek Hector from Cardiff, has sent me details of an exchange of correspondence with Private Eye and his battle to get them to publish an alternative point of view to that of their agricultural correspondent:
This is the letter I wrote to Private Eye in response to a pathetic rant supporting the dairy Industry and insulting Brian May ( The Agri Brigade Eye 1267)
I would be pleased if you would publish this letter to balance The Agri Brigade column (Private Eye No 1267).
In the first quarter of 2010 there has been a 64% drop in cattle slaughtered throughout Wales including a 49% drop in the ‘hot spots’ of Wales . This has not involved one badger being killed and you won’t like this, is the result of introducing modest improvements in testing, animal husbandry, movement and bio security.
Bovine TB occurs in many mammal species, many protected, (including man) and at a higher incidence than found in the badger.
The only answer to the complete eradication of bovine TB is to cull all wild life (and humans?) and I don’t think that this would be acceptable to your readers, certainly not to the majority of the population in Wales .
Lets go along with the more acceptable route (to the general public anyway) of improving further measures relating to cattle and introducing the badger vaccination that is already ready and fully tested and the injectable vaccine for cattle due by 2015.
Yours
Cat L Teebee (aka Derek Hector, Cardiff)
Agri Brigade replied as follows:
Dear Mr Hector
Agri-Brigade replies:
‘Thank you for your letter and let me assure you that any drop in Welsh cattle numbers slaughtered due to bTB infection is something I 'like' very much - particularly as any hope of dealing with the residual reservoir of bTB infection in the wildlife anywhere in the UK would now appear to be further away than ever - even though both Coalition partners were elected with clear manifesto commitments to carry out a badger cull.
Let's just hope that it's not just a quarterly blip due to weather conditions (levels of cattle infection vary greatly quarter on quarter but show a clear long term increase) or the 100 per cent usage of Dutch tuberculin to perform the skin test on cattle midway through last year which may be a factor.
Having farmed in a bTB hot spot for 30 years where 30% of the local badger population is infected with the disease I concur with the view that on farm bio-security does need to be tightened but it's easy for you and your 'general public' to hand out prescriptions of this sort to the cattle farming community and at the same time ignore the problem with the wildlife reservoir of the disease except to hold out a vague promise of a vaccine 'due' in 2015. Such a vaccine has been 'due' all my farming career and always about five years away. In any case you will, I presume, have read the Welsh chief veterinary officer Professor Christianne Glossop's view that even if a vaccine were in the offing it couldn't work as it does not cure infected badger populations but only immunises clean ones.
I'm not sure where you get the idea that there is a 'fully tested' vaccine 'due' by 2015. Not even Hilary Benn was optimistic enough to propose efficacy trials for a vaacine but only a limited trial to begin to learn the skills of how a badger population might be trapped and then injected in advance of a proven vaccine being developed.
All that said, you will not find in any Agri Brigade piece a direct call for a badger cull - indeed the scale of the problem has mushroomed to such an extent over the past 30 years that a cull of the scale, persistence and intensity required to sort this problem out has probably now passed, given the sabotage tactics and intimidation techniques used by elements of the animal rights movement. Not to mention the cost.
In writing about the issue I have, I hope fairly, pointed out the contrasting approaches between Welsh and English Governments, the rapid backtracking by the Coalition partners on their commitment to a badger cull and finally the unhelpful nature of Mr May's contribution in that many of his (albeit perfectly well meaning) pronouncements on the issue appear to be so - how does one put it politely? - wide of the mark. ‘
Best wishes
Ed
To which I replied
Thank you for your detailed reply. So my letter I assume will not be published in Private Eye.
There are people out there including epidemiologists and ecologists who could well disagree with your views and I am surprised that Private Eye excludes an exchange of views through its letter page.
Come on Private Eye we are close to becoming a police state, undemocratic to boot as it is - please don't help close the door on debate.
The 'general public' still have a voice in this country - or don't they?
Best wishes
Derek Hector.
BUT SURPRISE MY LETTER WAS PUBLISHED ALBEIT EDITED. Private Eye 1268
Sir
I would be pleased if you would publish this letter to balance the Agri Brigade column (Eye 1267).
In the first quarter of 2010 there has been a 64% drop in cattle slaughtered throughout Wales including a 49% drop in the 'hot spots' in Wales. This has not involved one badger being killed, and you won't like this, is the result of introducing modest improvements in testing, animal husbandry, movement and bio security.
Yours
Derek Hector, Cardiff.
This is the letter I wrote to Private Eye in response to a pathetic rant supporting the dairy Industry and insulting Brian May ( The Agri Brigade Eye 1267)
I would be pleased if you would publish this letter to balance The Agri Brigade column (Private Eye No 1267).
In the first quarter of 2010 there has been a 64% drop in cattle slaughtered throughout Wales including a 49% drop in the ‘hot spots’ of Wales . This has not involved one badger being killed and you won’t like this, is the result of introducing modest improvements in testing, animal husbandry, movement and bio security.
Bovine TB occurs in many mammal species, many protected, (including man) and at a higher incidence than found in the badger.
The only answer to the complete eradication of bovine TB is to cull all wild life (and humans?) and I don’t think that this would be acceptable to your readers, certainly not to the majority of the population in Wales .
Lets go along with the more acceptable route (to the general public anyway) of improving further measures relating to cattle and introducing the badger vaccination that is already ready and fully tested and the injectable vaccine for cattle due by 2015.
Yours
Cat L Teebee (aka Derek Hector, Cardiff)
Agri Brigade replied as follows:
Dear Mr Hector
Agri-Brigade replies:
‘Thank you for your letter and let me assure you that any drop in Welsh cattle numbers slaughtered due to bTB infection is something I 'like' very much - particularly as any hope of dealing with the residual reservoir of bTB infection in the wildlife anywhere in the UK would now appear to be further away than ever - even though both Coalition partners were elected with clear manifesto commitments to carry out a badger cull.
Let's just hope that it's not just a quarterly blip due to weather conditions (levels of cattle infection vary greatly quarter on quarter but show a clear long term increase) or the 100 per cent usage of Dutch tuberculin to perform the skin test on cattle midway through last year which may be a factor.
Having farmed in a bTB hot spot for 30 years where 30% of the local badger population is infected with the disease I concur with the view that on farm bio-security does need to be tightened but it's easy for you and your 'general public' to hand out prescriptions of this sort to the cattle farming community and at the same time ignore the problem with the wildlife reservoir of the disease except to hold out a vague promise of a vaccine 'due' in 2015. Such a vaccine has been 'due' all my farming career and always about five years away. In any case you will, I presume, have read the Welsh chief veterinary officer Professor Christianne Glossop's view that even if a vaccine were in the offing it couldn't work as it does not cure infected badger populations but only immunises clean ones.
I'm not sure where you get the idea that there is a 'fully tested' vaccine 'due' by 2015. Not even Hilary Benn was optimistic enough to propose efficacy trials for a vaacine but only a limited trial to begin to learn the skills of how a badger population might be trapped and then injected in advance of a proven vaccine being developed.
All that said, you will not find in any Agri Brigade piece a direct call for a badger cull - indeed the scale of the problem has mushroomed to such an extent over the past 30 years that a cull of the scale, persistence and intensity required to sort this problem out has probably now passed, given the sabotage tactics and intimidation techniques used by elements of the animal rights movement. Not to mention the cost.
In writing about the issue I have, I hope fairly, pointed out the contrasting approaches between Welsh and English Governments, the rapid backtracking by the Coalition partners on their commitment to a badger cull and finally the unhelpful nature of Mr May's contribution in that many of his (albeit perfectly well meaning) pronouncements on the issue appear to be so - how does one put it politely? - wide of the mark. ‘
Best wishes
Ed
To which I replied
Thank you for your detailed reply. So my letter I assume will not be published in Private Eye.
There are people out there including epidemiologists and ecologists who could well disagree with your views and I am surprised that Private Eye excludes an exchange of views through its letter page.
Come on Private Eye we are close to becoming a police state, undemocratic to boot as it is - please don't help close the door on debate.
The 'general public' still have a voice in this country - or don't they?
Best wishes
Derek Hector.
BUT SURPRISE MY LETTER WAS PUBLISHED ALBEIT EDITED. Private Eye 1268
Sir
I would be pleased if you would publish this letter to balance the Agri Brigade column (Eye 1267).
In the first quarter of 2010 there has been a 64% drop in cattle slaughtered throughout Wales including a 49% drop in the 'hot spots' in Wales. This has not involved one badger being killed, and you won't like this, is the result of introducing modest improvements in testing, animal husbandry, movement and bio security.
Yours
Derek Hector, Cardiff.
Comments:
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The vaccine 'due' in 2015 is a vaccine for cattle.
The (injectable) badger vaccine is not 'due' but here - it has been tested, shown to work and be safe, received a marketing license from the Veterinary Medicines Directorate, and could be used today by anyone with a license to catch badgers and a vet to prescribe the vaccine.
Someone who doesn't understand this should not be writing condescending columns about the subject, let alone criticizing Brian May for being 'wide of the mark' and claiming that that is putting it politely!
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The (injectable) badger vaccine is not 'due' but here - it has been tested, shown to work and be safe, received a marketing license from the Veterinary Medicines Directorate, and could be used today by anyone with a license to catch badgers and a vet to prescribe the vaccine.
Someone who doesn't understand this should not be writing condescending columns about the subject, let alone criticizing Brian May for being 'wide of the mark' and claiming that that is putting it politely!
<< Home
