Regular readers will know that I am a long-standing supporter of animal welfare issues. I launched ‘Freedom Foods’ in Wales when I was First Minister. I’ve campaigned against the Canadian “cull” of seal pups and I took the lead in ending the Parliamentary stalemate on hunting. But I am dismayed that it is the fate of the badger that will push animal welfare issues back to the top of the agenda this year.
In Wales a cull of badgers has been proposed by the Rural Affairs Minister – though last week a fresh legal challenge forced her to delay the whole project. This cull has been strongly opposed by our local Assembly Member Lorraine Barrett AM and rightly so as there is no real scientific basis for the cull. Studies have shown that a cull could actually increase the incidence of bovine TB in the area immediately surrounding the cull zone.
Instead of waiting to see what happens in Wales the new UK Coalition Government has decided that “as part of a package of measures, we will introduce a carefully managed and science-led policy of badger control in areas with high and persistent levels of bovine tuberculosis”. But you can’t have a science led policy that ignores the evidence.
On hunting, the coalition seems less keen to do what they proposed (or threatened depending on your point of view). Instead of a bill to repeal the Hunting Act it seems that there will just be a vote on a resolution. It is all very puzzling.
By the way, the anonymous correspondent to the letters page who asked why I sometimes wrote about ‘issues that have nothing to do with Penarth’ might like to know that last year the three issues on which constituents wrote to me in the greatest numbers were; international aid, the environment, and animal welfare.