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Badgers
in Moray get new housing
while people don't
James Irvine
Teviot Scientific, Cultybraggan Farm, Comrie,
Perthshire
Filed 22 Jan 07
©www.land-care.org.uk
Moray Council, in the North East of Scotland,
have spent £80,000 to re-house a set of five badgers. This
in spite of a chronic shortage of housing for people in the area.
These Moray badgers had been burrowing under the
B9018: the road between Cullen and Keith. They had been doing this
for years. Allegedly, they had dug as far as 30 ft underground.
The situation had become so bad that engineers reckoned that the
road might subside.
But badgers are classed as a protected species,
although their numbers are not under threat. So, according to existing
law, if they are causing trouble they have to be re-housed. But
even this can only happen after a licence has been obtained from
the Scottish Executive. The potent, but not infrequently irrational,
badger lobby has seen to that - not only in Scotland, but throughout
Europe.
So Moray Council felt obliged to spend this vast
sum of ratepayers' money on building a new home for these five damaging
diggers. Presumably to keep the badger lobby happy, the Council
asked a Mr Harris of Grampian Badger Survey to design the new facility.
This he did in such style that the badgers settled into their new
luxurious premises nae bother.
But badgers are prolific breeders. Now there are
five, but when will there be 10, or 20? The fancy accommodation
will become overcrowded. Some will be forced to move out - perhaps
a little further along the road, and perhaps again under it - as
they forage for food.
There are 2,500 people in Moray waiting for a
council house. The housing stock is in such a critical condition
that a ban has been placed on people buying council properties.
This fancy badger accommodation is allegedly the first new property
the Council has built for some time. Council taxes are rising, causing
financial hardship to many - especially the elderly and those on
fixed incomes. Services provided by Councils for the elderly are
being cut back on account of lack of money. Yet such large sums
can be spent on temporary arrangements to relocate a badger set
that was threatening to undermine a roadway.
This situation is yet another example of the crazy
disproportionate influence that single focus lobby groups can have
at the taxpayers' expense, or the expense of those trying to run
their legitimate businesses whilst maintaining a reasonable balance
between economics and conservation. Similar situations, among others,
have been described in the case of raptors (1,
2), cormorants (3),
barnacle geese (4) and bats (5).
Whilst bovine tuberculosis (bTB) has not yet become
widespread in Scotland, the situation in parts of England and Wales
is very different. There the alarming prevalence of bTB in cattle
and in badgers has been established for many years, and is worsening.
Adequate control measures are blocked by the protected status of
badgers (6). It is probably only
a matter of time before bTB "hot spots" make their appearance
in Scotland's cattle and badgers. A particular risk is that some
misguided "conservationist" may bring badgers from a tuberculosis
area in England to "conservation areas" in Scotland. That
would be folly, both for Scottish badgers and for Scottish livestock
and other Scottish widllife.
As a temporary solution, re-housing troublesome
badgers at great expense does not seem to be a good idea.
©www.land-care.org.uk
References
1. Linklater Magnus (2005). Claws
out on a silent moorland. A heated battle rages over birds of prey
threatening Britain's grouse. The Times, 25th August 2005.
Reproduced on www,land-care.org.uk by kind permission of the
author and the newspaper Click
Here to View
2. MacLeod, Kirsty (2006). The
introduction of sea eagles to the coasts of Scotland.
See ENVIRONMENT Homepage, filed 06 Nov 2006, www.land-care.org.uk
Click
Here to View
3. Irvine, James (2006). Protected
cormorants blamed for the demise of trout fishing on Loch Leven
under the management of Scottish Natural Heritage.
See ENVIRONMENT Homepage, filed 04 Jun 06, www.land-care.org.uk
Click
Here to View
4. Quinn, Shaun (2006). Loch Leven
cormorants must not be shot, says Scottish Executive.
For why? Letter to Editor
See ENVIRONMENT Homepage, filed 06 Jul 06, www.land-care.org.uk
Click
Here to View
5. Irvine, James (2002). Bats
and rabies.
See ENVIRONMENT Homepage, 16 Dec 02, www.land-care.org.uk
Click
Here to View
6. Irvine, James (2006). Tuberculosis
in cattle and badgers: disease control, ethics and welfare. Review
of SCAWS workshop, Moredun Research Institute, 19th October 2006.
See TUBERCULOSIS Homepage, filed 20 Nov
06, www.land-care.org.uk Click
Here to View
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