Dave B wrote:I am personally in the camp of those who think that it will, in the long run, make little difference. Badgers will migrate into free territory from areas where no culling has been carried out. Thus the killing will have to go on for decades.
That has already been factored in. And, IIRC, the migration of badgers is
into the culled areas, not away from them, as that is where there is more territory for badgers. If the migration went the other way, then the culled areas would soon be free of badgers, and moer free of TB too.
And yes, the killing is expected to go on for some years.
I will bet that the cost of that will make some of these people change their minds and decide that the vaccination route is probably more cost effective if we are talking about many decades of paying people to shoot them.
I'll take that bet, Dave! Vaccination is much more expensive than shooting, and furthermore, has to be done every year or so as the vaccine wears off, so the cost comparison becomes even worse.
Or some sick bastard will promote trapping or blocking/gassing because it is "cheaper".
As I understand it, vaccination is achieved by trapping.....
Cows milk, and all its by-products (the real motivation for this move - that which fills all the pockets) has many substitutes now and humans do not really need it.
OK, give that whirl. There aren't that many vegans about, but you could begin with yourself...
The amount of land required to produce a 1000l of cows milk could probably be better used growing vegetable products for direct human consumption. There are thousands of acres in the Gloucester area that grow nothing but grass, either as pasture or for silage, then protein of animal origin and other origins is also mixed into the feed to make sure these milk factories on legs are able to do their job. How many acres per pint then?
If milk production fell, I doubt that many acres would be switched to veggies. There's no shortage of them in the UK. It may be that there is some better use of land than grass, but, when you consider that we already spnd many millions in subsidies to farmers to keep various areas of the country as grasslands, I don't think reducing milk production would have the effect you expect.
And, as Alan C has pointed out before, in many grassland areas, crops are not a viable alternative anyway.