Excellent, if he has a lot to do with the breeding side he may well know the friend I spoke of. Jan her name is. They have Jerseys that they show and milk and beef cattle too. Their farm here is in staffordshire. I know they have sent cattle over there.

He has a dairy farm but no Jersey cattle

Ah I see. The drop 'em and shoot 'em type? People moan about Badgers being shot too!!

So you're encouraging people to endanger themselves and probably tresspass too?

Just saying...

But humans are animals Dawn, so that does not add up. We too are animals ... we just happen to be Top Dog species. That does not give us the right to Lord it - IMO - over our fellow animals.

Well, you are a bigger person than me Jackbox if you want to argue with as eminent a scientist as Lord Krebs. IF badger culling is working in Eire - and I know nothing about the facts apropros to Eire, so I will have to take your word for it - according to the scientific research here in the UK, this will only be temporary.

As to your last paragraph, I can categorically assure you that if farmers try to cull badgers round here, then I shall most certainly "be putting myself in such danger". I am pretty sure that in fact I would not be in any danger at all ... but equally sure that I will stop them being able to shoot at badgers

Nothing fluffy about badgers. They are savage if cornered or in defence of their young ... a bit like us humans actually

We will see - I guess I was being over-optimistic and extremely naive in my hope that marksmen would be used, not just any old Jo with a gun. I for one would not want to be anywhere near an injured badger, they are vicious where humans are concerned, and who can blame them quite frankly. They have been persecuted and hunted and hounded for centuries. The way to wipe out TB in our dairy herds is to breed healthier cows which have a natural resistance to TB - ironically, just like the badgers. They carry TB, but it does not make them ill. Just possibly because - unlike our dairy herds - they are not inbred.

No - at least to your first point. No danger - if these people are marksmen, as we are led to believe, they will know the rules surrounding guns.

Regarding your second point - yes, I am expecting people to put their money where their mouths are and if they care about badgers, to be prepared to trespass. I most certainly would, and I most certainly will if badger culling ever comes to my area. Hopefully it won't because we do not have a lot of dairy cattle round here, it is mainly sheep, arable and beef cattle.

Butting in here Dawn - I don't know to what you are referring, but I will say that there is a shed load of difference between badgers (wild animals) being shot in contravention of all the scientific advice, and cattle (domestic animals) being shot for food etc. Domesticated animals would not exist but for us human's need for milk/meat/wool/leather etc. etc. Provided such animals are raised and despatched in an ethical and humane way, I have no problem with such animals being "farmed" and killed. However, where wild animals are concerned, to my mind that is entirely different. The ethics are different, or should be different. Killing for food = OK. Killing for fun - not OK. Culling animals = sometimes OK, depending on scientific evidence. In the case of badgers, the scientific evidence does not exist.