Badgers: Dodging the Bullet? Panorama

This programme contains some scenes which some viewers may find

upsetting. Badgers should be dying here and

now. The Government wanted them killed to hold the spread of a

killer disease - tuberculosis. Thousands of cattle are being

slaughtered each year to fight this infection. There is no question

about it - the reason why my cows have TB is badgers. Farmers have

long blamed badgers for spreading TB to their cattle. The Government

backed them and authorised a cull. But the guns have remained silent

in what many see as another Government U-turn. So, with their

fingers on the trigger, why didn't they fire? Was it the strength of

opposition? We are not going to stand by and witness the abysmal

slaughter of these creatures. it intimidation of farmers? I hope

you die in a fire you sick (BLEEP), (BLEEP), (BLEEP). If that isn't a

threatening text, I don't know what is. Was it a dispute over the

science? Badger-culling can make no meaningful contribution to the

control of TB in cattle in Britain - end of story. Panorama reveals

the inside story of the badger cull and asks whether, as the Government

insists, it will happen next year. If we do not do this, we are

condemning our cattle industry to a hopeless future. I'm not prepared

"The Mole had long wanted to make the acquaintance of the Badger. The

Wind in the Willows has charmed generations by giving its animal

cast such human characters, none more so than "Dear, Old Badger",

described as gruff and someone who "simply hates society". So an

animal few of us have ever seen gets a big, noble personality. We

have long been a nation of animal lovers. But the riverside

adventures of Badger and Co have had a deeper significance,

inspiring generations to nurture and cherish Britain's wildlife.

Towards the end of the last century, popular affection was joined by

legal protection. An Act of Parliament makes it illegal to kill,

injury or remove badgers from their setts. So with no natural predators,

badgers have gone forth and multiplied. For the last 25 years,

a rise in their numbers has coincided with an increase in

tuberculosis in cattle. Though mainly a disease afflicting cows,

bovine TB can infect a variety of animals and badgers are significant

carriers. It is passed from cattle to cattle, from badger to badger,

and between the two. This is how the Government wants to deal with

badgers. Until a few weeks ago, marksmen were being trained to

shoot them at night in a plan to kill three-quarters of the badger

population. In two secret pilot areas, one in Gloucestershire, the

other in Somerset. Each zone was around 300 square kilometres. But

from the off, animal rights activists took to the countryside,

battle lines were being drawn. Threatening to be the largest clash

since fox-hunting was banned. At the 11th hour, with both sides dug

in, the Government stopped the cull in its tracks, delaying it until

next year. Was this another U-turn? There has been absolutely no change

to policy. We are quite determined to go ahead with two pilot culls,

but we need to do them under the right conditions and we need to do

them in a way that they have absolute scientific integrity.

what motivates a policy that involves killing such a well-loved

animal? New cases of TB have doubled since 2000. Most cattle

farmers think shooting badgers will protect their herds and reverse the

trend. For almost a century, the Barton family have been farming

this corner of the Cotswolds. Today, David Barton runs a herd of 150

beef cows. But beneath beauty lurks disease. This place is a TB hotspot.

This bull calf, given a girl's name by David's daughter, is a victim.

Gertrude is a product of the T "B" testing regime that we have. His

mother failed the test in February. He will be tested in a couple of

weeks' time. If he fails the test, he will be slaughtered. As farmers,

we are basically animal lovers. We love our animals. When TB strikes,

it is heartbreaking. It really is. Infected badgers are thought to

pass TB to cattle through saliva, faeces or urine. If cows and

badgers share grazing, they can pick up the infection. For David,

it is clear which is to blame. Without doubt, the main host of TB

is badgers. I have five or six badger setts across the grazing

that these cattle have to share. Nowhere in the world have they

managed to control TB without controlling the wildlife reservoir.

I empathise with people who are opposed to the cull because it is

very, it is the sort of thing that no-one wants to do, but it is

necessary to control this horrible disease. Last year, 34,000 cattle

were slaughtered to control TB, costing the taxpayer a bill of �100

million annually. So without further disease control, we could

be paying �1 billion in the next decade. To fight the disease and

cut the cost, the Government settled on its badger cull policy.

Culling badgers does give a reduction of TB in cattle over a

period of years. If you cull effectively, and over a long enough

period, you can get a benefit in reducing TB in cattle.

Government expects the cull will mean around 16% fewer cattle herds

going down with TB over the next nine years. But does that justify

killing thousands of badgers and infuriating Britain's badger-loving

public? Good morning, everybody. Thank you for coming. It is lovely

to see so many of you here. Pauline Kidner runs Secret World Wildlife

Rescue in Somerset. Badgers are amongst her most treasured patients.

I have always been amazed by how people are attracted to them. That

has to be they are probably the closest thing to a teddy bear when

they are young. I think I care about badgers very much because

they are such misunderstood animals. They are fascinating creatures.

Pauline once ran a dairy farm herself and feels the farmers' pain

but doesn't agree with culling as a cure. I totally, totally understand

the emotional and the financial side of a bovine TB outbreak on a

farm. But believe me, as far as I'm concerned, killing badgers never

has and never will be the answer to this problem. While accepting

badgers can give TB to cows, she believes most infections on farms

arise from cattle spreading the disease among themselves. One of

the things you have to remember is that if you reduce the disease in

cattle, and it is a bovine disease, it is not a wildlife disease, it is

a cattle disease, and if you reduce the incidents of TB in cattle, it

automatically reduces in wildlife. The Government insists it is

already tackling the cattle side. Movement restrictions and testing

will tighten further in the New Year, so that leaves the badgers.

Several weeks before the cull was due to begin, I was invited to meet

one of the marksmen who would be doing the shooting. He insisted on

remaining anonymous for fear of reprisal by animal rights activists.

How much training have you had? Well, I went on a detailed training

course. It was a mixture of theory and practical sessions. I had to

complete an exam at the end of it. I was tested on how I could shoot

at 70 metres. You will be shooting them from here, would you? Is this

range crucial? The range is crucial. We can't shoot them any further

than 70 metres. Pitted against the marksmen were anti-cull campaigners

who had spent months combing the countryside for clues about where

the shooting would happen. There is another entrance here. How can it

be that people who live in those cull zones can't find out they are

inside the cull zone, when it is going to take place, who is

responsible for it? The Government refused to answer any questions.

Jay Tiernan made it his mission to get answers. The campaign we are

running is very much along the lines of exposing secrets. Huge

volumes of our information come from phone blagging, which is when

you trick people into giving you information by pretending someone

who you are not. You pretend to be a journalist, someone from Natural

England, someone from the NFU. Then you build-up their trust and you

ring them and you keep talking to them over a period of days. And get

critical information that is useful to you? Lots of information. For

every five people that you ring, maybe two of them won't talk to you.

More than half will talk. Once he knew where the cull would happen,

activists pasted up warnings and posters asking for help. Word

spread and more anti-cull campaigners took to the field.

don't know how the cull is going to be carried out. We are pretty sure

it will involve a man pointing a gun at a badger. Hopefully, we can

get in the way of that and stop it. Veterans proved they could still

mobilise in numbers and town halls filled up, too, as campaigners

stepped up to the soapbox. badgers have no vote. They have no

voice. We are not going to stand by and witness the abysmal slaughter

of these creatures for no tangible decent purpose whatsoever. One of

the biggest opposition guns was the head of the RSPCA. The spotlight of

attention will be turned on those marksmen and on those that give

permission for this cull to take place. They will be named and we

will decide as citizens of this country whether they will be shamed.

Fiery words from the leader of an organisation whose patron is Her

Majesty the Queen. For activists, exposing the people behind the cull

was key. The first real coup for Jay's campaign was tracking down

the names and addresses of directors of the two secret

companies running the cull and publishing them on the internet.

Contact details also went online. Government lawyers got tough,

winning an injunction forcing the removal of those personal details.

You have published the names and addresses of people organising this

cull. Surely there is a danger of personal reprisal on them which you

will then be partly responsible for? No, I won't be partly

responsible for any reprisals on them. They will be responsible for

it for organising a cull on badgers. You don't accept you are increasing

the risk by publishing their names and addresses? Not at all. That is

not how this farmer saw it. What security measures have you had to

take? You can see one of them up here is the CCTV camera. That is it

there? He is a director of the company which was organising the

cull in Gloucestershire. When my name went up on the Badgerkillers

website, we got some nasty, threatening texts and letters.

I have a look? Yes, by all means. I have a file here that I have kept

the worst of them in. There's a text here, you can see. It is

opening up. I hope you die in a fire you sick (BLEEP), (BLEEP),

(BLEEP). Are you planning to disappear or change your name so

that I can find you? I'm sure they will. I will be happy to read about

the justice they will give to you. At no point, were you threatened in

this entire text - ha, ha, ha. that isn't a threatening text, I

don't know what is. You have a family here? Yes. Grandchildren

come and visit regularly. And it just does worry you, that is

another one. My funeral plan that's been ordered for me. Obviously,

somebody has made a fictitious enquiry in my name. It is the

insinuation behind it. It does shake you. It shakes you a lot at

the time. Given this intimidation, does the RSPCA boss still stand by

I was at a meeting in Tewkesbury where you called for the

identification of the farmers and marksmen involved in the cull.

called for the identification of the farms. That is splitting hairs.

Certainly not. I am totally opposed to personal intimidation. Why did

you call for the identification of farmers involved in a cull? I have

not called for the identification of any individual. The RSPCA is a

responsible organisation and I am a responsible leader. I think there

is a groundswell of opinion in communities across the nation and

in Parliament that this is the wrong solution to the difficult

Many members of the public agree, and their opinions were amplified

by a rock star. Queen guitarist Brian May. We have no war to fight

with the farmers. We are fighting bovine TB. His online petition

gained 160,000 signatures and forced a debate in Parliament,

which the Government overwhelmingly lost, but they are not bound by it.

Brian May's garden doubles as a wildlife sanctuary and most

evenings he checks who is visiting. He believes that the badger cull is

simply not ethical. To me it is black and white. It is down to

moral issues, down to whether people think it is worthwhile

sacrificing the life of thousands of innocent creatures to get what

is essentially a marginal improvement, perhaps, in the

mortality rate of cattle, which will be slaughtered three years

later anyway. For farmer David Barton, the death of his animals

may come rather sooner. His farm remained clear of TB until 2001. He

has suffered five outbreaks in the last decade. We want to keep one

ready. He now has a test every 60 days. They are black days. I think

they enjoyed a testing about as much as I do. In the last eight

years, the number of cattle slaughtered to two TB has gone up

by 50%. They are running at 200 new herds every year in Gloucestershire.

She is a reactive. What is that? Another one with TB, that is two so

far. He says that the cows going down with TB are in there herd that

spent the winter grazing outside with the badgers. Those that spent

the winter indoors are clear of infection. No farmer wants to see

the badgers cold. The problem is there is no question about it. The

reason why they have got TB is badgers. Can I tell you why? The

cows live outside 10 months of the year and they are the ones going

down with TB, living with a reservoir in the wildlife. A red

stripe marks those with TB. They have now just days to live. 10 days

later, the slaughterman arrived. The cows to be shot have been

separated from their cards. -- from Well, I feel sick, to be honest. It

is a terrible waste of good breeding stock. Beef herds has been

my life's work, and I started when I was 19 and it is incredibly

distressing for me. I am not sure whether I want to continue with

this. It is so upsetting. Struggling through hard times,

farmers like David clung to the hope that the cull was imminent. A

solution at last to end their TB nightmare. But is there another

solution that involves medicine not marksmen? The cattle vaccine is

being developed. Brian May joined the head of the RSPCA in a visit to

Brussels to try to persuade the EU to allow its use. For me the Holy

Grail of this is to vaccinate the cows. It is almost a no-brainer. Of

course we should. If it was our children, we would be vaccinating

before we can say Jack Robinson. The European Commission has ruled

out a cattle vaccine for the foreseeable future because of

difficulties telling the difference between an animal with the disease

and one that has been vaccinated. would love it if I had a vaccine. I

could press a button this evening and say vaccinate. Sadly at the

moment we are still in the early stages of development. There will

be quite a lengthy process of proving it those vaccines in the

field. For the time being I have to use the tools at my disposal and

one of those is to bear down on disease and wildlife by culling.

But does culling really work? In the 1990s, a ten-year trial began

involving trapping and shooting badgers. Thousands were killed. The

Government says that those deaths reduced to be in cattle over all.

That is the scientific justification for the current

culling policy. -- reduced TB in cattle overall. Dr Chris Cheeseman

worked on the trial. He disputes this and believe that culling can

make things worse. One of the effects is to increase the movement

of badgers 526 bold. Instead of travelling over 50 hectares, it

might be 300. -- 5 to six fold. In doing that, they contact more

badgers and so the rate goes up, and the spread of TB goes up.

ten-year trial found that while culling badgers could cut TB in

badgers inside the cull zone, the benefits did not stretch very far.

In the heart of the culling area there was a decrease of TB of 25%

and on the edge there was an increase because of the disruptive

effects of culling of about the same amount. There is positive and

negative effects pretty much cancelled each other out. The

scientific committee that oversaw the trial concluded that badger

culling can make no meaningful contribution to the control of TB

in cattle in Britain, end of story. And he is not alone. In the final

days before the cull was due to start, some of the country's

leading animal disease scientists wrote to the Observer newspaper,

publicly condemning the Government's position. 30

scientists, experts in the area, have written a letter saying that

you have got the policy wrong. What do you say to that? The scientists

agree with the results of the trial, which is that if you cull

effectively and over a long enough period, you can get a benefit in

reducing TB in cattle. Can you give me some names of scientists that

back your view? I think that I will not do those scientists the

disservice of possibly putting forward their views. They can put

forward their own views. We are seeing scientists offering an

opinion about whether that is deliverable. When the

interpretation of the science is so hotly-contested, cannot be relied

upon to justify the cull? -- can it be relied upon? Science has done a

lot to tell us about the disease but it cannot give us a definitive

answer on whether it you should cull or not. The science suggests

that culling of badgers will give a modest decrease in the instances of

TB. Whether that is enough to justify the harm that will be done

to the badger population cannot be judged by science. It is

essentially a political decision. As the cull was about to get under

way, the politician in charge did make a decision.

Controversial plans to start killing thousands of badgers in

England to try to stop the spread of tuberculosis in cattle have been

put on hold until at least next year. Today why have received a

letter from the President of the NFU, explaining why they do not

feel they can go ahead this year. What was it that finally stopped

the cull? Ironically the killer blow came not from scientists,

public pressure or intimidation, but from inside the Government

itself. With just days to go before the cull was due to start, the

agency in charge of licensing it discovered a number of -- the

number of badgers had been delivered and the underestimated.

Results of the survey suggested there were double the number of

badgers in the cull zones, meaning twice the work and cost for those

involved in killing them. They realised it could not be done.

in the day we learned the numbers were double the previous estimates.

That put us on the back food. If we got this wrong, because of the time

lines and the numbers of badgers involved, we failed to meet the

targets, then we would destroy the policy for ever and the issue of TB

is far too important for us as an industry to take that risk.

many farmers, a year's delay means another year coping with TB. I felt

angry, frustrated, incredibly disappointed, bearing in mind that

I had just loaded three lorryloads of cattle TB reactors to be

slaughtered. I was incredibly disappointed. How confident are you

that this is a delay and not a prelude to cancellation? I am very

confident that it is just a delay. Can you imagine the Government

making a U-turn? Quite! I think it will happen for sure. Farmers'

leaders question whether the Government agency that licensed the

cull, Natural England, it really supports it. It is so important

that Natural England can demonstrate that within that big

organisation they are not people that just like the polities so much

that they want it to fail. -- there are not people that just dislike

the policy so much. Natural England says they are committed to working

with Government policy. But we have found people that work to undermine

the cull. You did leak people's names? Yes, I passed on any

information from any source because it added to the understanding of

the big picture. And you are happy with that? I am happy to do

something that will stop an activity going on that is going to

be a complete disaster for the farming community from so many

aspects. Can a those same agencies be trusted to deliver the promised

cull? Officially the cull will begin any time from June next year.

Whether that actually happens depends on the political will of

those inside Westminster. I am completely determined the two

pilots will go ahead and that this is the right policy. Would you put

your career on it? I am determined. I have been put year by the Prime

Minister to help galvanise the rural economy and improve the

environment. I cannot think of anything that will improve that

industry and the environment better than this. Fighting talk. It will

reassure some and horrify others. Am optimistic that it will not go

ahead but we have to prepare as if it is. That is how we have always

done it, to carry on working as if it is, and that is how we will

carry on. It is the badger is causing the disease in my cattle

and I'm absolutely sure of that. Less it is sorted out, the

situation is hopeless. The Government is hell bent on killing

badgers. They just want to kill badgers and we have to make sure

they do not make that mistake because it will be a big mistake.

If the Government goes ahead, there will be no let-up from protesters.

2012 turned out to be a dress rehearsal, and exercise where both

sides could sharpen their tactics before the battle next year.

Although animals will be in the line of fire, there will be plenty

of raw human anguish. Tomorrow night we followed the

brain injured patients communicating for the first time