So many questions about this story, starting with: What measures does @NaturalEngland have in place to check that badgers submitted during culls come from the cull zones, from cull periods? cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-…
The risk of shooters "beefing up" the numbers by submitting road kills, or adding in badgers shot elsewhere, has been known since the first pilot culls, when badgers subject to PM included 1 that was never shot, and 1 that was shot when already dead assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…
...and when @FredaBrox reported tracking a marksman's vehicle which repeatedly visited a baited sett miles from the cull zone. Maybe not legal but a clue to @NaturalEngland what might be going on.
There is a strong pressure to inflate the numbers of badgers killed when specific cull licences, and the culling policy, depend upon culls being deemed "effective". And also when shooters are paid per badger killed.
Faking the #badgercull numbers of course breaks the letter of the law, because the badger is a protected species and it is unlawful to kill one without a licence...
...but it also breaks the spirit of the law, which allows licensed culling for "preventing the spread of disease"...
Killing small numbers of badgers INCREASES TB risks to cattle. Killing a few badgers over a wide area then pretending you killed a lot in a small area risks increasing cattle TB over a wide area, rather than controlling it.
So monitoring culling is essential to avoid such damaging gaming of the system. But there is hardly any monitoring. Between 2017 and 2018, govt increased the cull area by 68% but reduced expenditure on monitoring by 30% gov.uk/government/pub…
It ought to be possible to check whether badgers submitted to the culls are being killed outside the licensed areas by screening to see whether more than expected have non-local genotypes sheffield.ac.uk/molecol/softwa…. Is this done? I think not.
Finally, when I discussed this case with local @NFUtweets and cull company directors they insisted this person "had nothing to do with the cull". Evidence given to the court suggests they were... mistaken.
Like them I hold licences to do things to badgers which would otherwise be unlawful. I would take it very VERY seriously if someone listed on one of my licences was found to be breaking licence conditions.
Instead I was given an array of far fetched ideas about why someone might be found in possession of dead badgers, by a person in the meeting to represent @NFUtweets. Unimpressive.
