Dominic Dyer, chief executive of the Badger Trust, picks apart the science and politics behind the badger cull. He exposes the cruelty and cynicism central to Britain's most controversial wildlife policy and clears badgers of blame for rising levels of TB in cattle.

INTRODUCTION. Wildlife campaigner and Springwatch BBC presenter Chris Packham says that 'the reputation of this essential member of the UK’s ecology [the badger] has been targeted by a smear campaign which has been swallowed by the gullible and fuelled by those with vested interests.' ‘It is very clear to me that the government’s policy does not make sense.’ Lord Robert May, President of the Royal Society and Chief Scientific Advisor, UK Government (1995-2005), speaking in 2012 1. A BLACK AND WHITE NIGHT. Campaigners in 2015 protest at the re-election of Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron in Witney, Oxfordshire, because of his party's policy of culling European badger (Meles meles), ostensibly to reduce Bovine TB in cattle 2. WOVEN INTO THE LANDSCAPE. Most people have never seen a live badger; the closest we tend to come is as we speed past a corpse on the side of the road. However, these large mammals often live in close proximity to us and there are more than 100 manifestations of the Anglo-Saxon 'broc' in place names 3. A DISEASE OF CATTLE. During an outbreak of bovine tuberculosis (TB for short) in cattle at a farm in the Cotswolds Hills scientists found Mycobacterium bovis (bovine TB) in a dead badger. The Government started and then halted gassing badgers. A study showed badgers rarely carried Bovine TB 4. NEW LABOUR. The Labour Party did not support culling. When Tony Blair's New Labour came to power in May 1997 the Ministry of Agriculture introduced a moratorium on new badger culls. The Krebs report recommended that MAFF set up an experiment to quantify the impact on Bovine TB of culling badgers 5. GORDON BROWN VETOES A CULL. In 2001, Tony Blair created the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which inherited higher bovine TB cases. A review by Professor Bourne of the Krebs randomised trials found only 1.65% of badgers could spread TB to cattle 6. CAMERON'S CULL. In the run up to the 2010 general election, when every rural vote would count, and with commitments already made to the NFU and Countryside Alliance to deliver a badger cull, David Cameron and his farming spokesman Jim Paice hailed a report by Chief Scientific Advisor Sir David King 7. WILDLIFE OVER BUSINESS. A chance encounter on a suburban street in Kingston upon Thames made up the author's mind to ditch corporate lobbying and campaign full-time, already being chairman of Care for the Wild, a wildlife protection charity. He first saw badgers on the Isle of Wight 8. AWKWARD FACTS. New DEFRA Secretary of State Owen Paterson Paterson made it very clear that he would not be pushed off course by growing public, political and scientific opposition to the badger cull. Bovine TB had led to the slaughter of 26,000 cattle the previous year, he told MPs 9. THE BADGER ARMY. Protests were organised nationwide. The informal "Badger Army" had become the largest wildlife protection campaign in Britain and elicited political interest as well as media headlines. After each march photos and videos were shared on Twitter, Facebook and other social media 10. GREEN MOVEMENT FAILS THE BADGER. While ordinary people across the country have protested against the badger cull, there has been a marked lack of action from the major conservation and wildlife protection NGOs. Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, WWF, World Animal Protection have done almost nothing 11. DEFENDED BY AMATEURS. With the support of other key wildlife protection charities opposing the cull, the Badger Trust challenged the wide-ranging nature of an anti-protect injunction and its impact on the right to peaceful protest at the High Court 12. BBC BIAS. As the badger cull progressed the BBC became heavily criticised by the badger protection movement. In my view, some of this was unfair, particularly as its regional networks had given extensive coverage of the badger protection patrols in the culling zones. But in some cases, the BBC failed 13. ILLEGAL CULLS. Today in Britain badgers are regularly killed by farmers, landowners, hunt masters, game keepers, property developers, badger baiters and a variety of sick individuals, who gain some perverted pleasure from subjecting wildlife to pain and suffering 14. TB BURGERS. Whenever the media reports the number of TB cattle slaughtered, they often state the animals have been destroyed, leaving the public with the impression the carcasses are incinerated to prevent them from entering the food chain. But this is not so 15. OWEN PATERSON. Within months of arriving at Defra in September 2012, Paterson had caused controversy by refusing to meet his Chief Scientific Advisor, Ian Boyd – and for claiming at the Conservative Party conference that there could be advantages to climate change 16. VETS' DILEMMA. The new Defra Secretary Liz Truss made no attempt to explain why none of the badgers killed in the culls was being tested for TB and became visibly nervous when we talked of the £5,000 per dead badger cost to the taxpayer. Defra Chief Vet Nigel Gibbens did not attend the meeting 17. COST OF THE CULL. By the end of 2013 Defra, which had seen its operating budget cut by over £900 million and was laying off hundreds of staff, confirmed that in 2011/12 it had spent £6.3 million of its £2.2 billion budget killing 1,879 badgers in Gloucestershire and Somerset – £3,350 per badger 18. FARMING FUTURE. As dairy farms face collapse due to falling milk prices, farmers are increasingly supplementing their income by moving and selling calves and cows, often with poor biosecurity, testing and movement controls, which can increase the spread of bovine TB 19. FATE OF THE BADGER. Farmers in the UK are also becoming increasingly frustrated by the failure of the government and the NFU to help them reduce bovine TB. Rather than the endless battle over the killing of badgers, many are now openly calling for an alternative strategy 20. BADGER VOICES. Profiles of influential campaigners: TV presenter Chris Packham, Queen guitarist Brian May, TV presenter Bill Oddie, documentary maker Simon King, Guardian writer Patrick Barkham, Sunday Times writer Jonathan Leake, zoologist Martin Hancox, Badger Trust's Peter Martin, vet Mark Jones 21. INDEX. Such as the As: Aberdeen University, Advertising Standards Authority, Advisory Committee on Microbiological Safety of Food, Africa, Agriculture Act, Alaska, Allen Caroline, alpaca, Amchitka, American bullfrog, Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency, Attenborough, Sir David King DEDICATION. This book is dedicated to the memory of Clare Hammacott, who died on 28th December 2016 ABOUT THE AUTHOR. After 13 years as a civil servant in MAFF, in 2000 he joined the Food and Drink Federation. In 2008 he became chief executive of the Crop Protection Association. In 2012, he became a campaigner. He is a policy advisor for the Born Free Foundation and chief executive of the Badger Trust

How a protected animal became hunted in the English countryside. And how nature lovers fought back. For centuries the badger (Meles meles) was persecuted in Britain, until it received legal protection in 1973. Now it is being targeted again — by the Government. Up to 100,000 badgers could be slaughtered by 2020, in a cull disowned by animal disease experts. In this book, Dominic Dyer, chief executive of the Badger Trust, reveals the real cost of Britain's most controversial wildlife policy — and its hidden origins in party politics and big business.

'A thriller, whodunnit and impassioned polemic, this is the inside story of the badger cull. A vital must-read for anyone concerned about the badger's enduring place in the British countryside.' – PATRICK BARKHAM, THE GUARDIAN 

Why are our badgers ‘Badgered to Death'?  An interview with Dominic  Dyer, author of Badgered to Death, by Lesley Docksey for The Ecologist 23rd August 2016 Dominic Dyer is the Chief Executive of the Badger Trust charity. Everyone who has joined in anti-badger-cull marches and rallies across the country will be familiar with the man leading from the front - whose passionate speeches in defence of one of our most iconic wild animals have constantly condemned the lack of science behind the killing. Dyer's first encounter with a badger was on the Isle of Wight. Years later, to his amazement, he saw one happily living in London suburbs. This badger helped his decision to leave a well-paid career and take up full-time work for wildlife conservation. But why did he become such a champion for the badger? "Over a period of time I became increasingly angry about the demonisation of the badger. I remember attending many farm industry events during my time in the food and plant science industries where farmers would regularly talk of the need to kill the animal, even discussing how to gas them. And I disliked the way the science and animal welfare concerns were dismissed in a mad rush to kill these animals." Being the CEO of the Badger Trust has given him many opportunities to study badgers, and as he says, "The more you get to see them in the wild the more enchanting they become. It does not take long to become hooked as a badger watcher." One also, of course, becomes more aware of the lack of science behind badger culling, and it is this devastating lack that Badgered to Death addresses. Considering how long and complicated the history of badgers and bovine TB is, this could have been a dense and difficult undertaking. But this is not a book filled with references to learned papers and obtuse scientific arguments. Dyer simply and clearly describes the political process by which the badger became the scapegoat for the bovine tuberculosis in England's cattle. Read more

Chapter 14: TB Burgers TB is an extremely unpleasant illness in humans, causing a phlegmy cough, night sweats, fever, and fatigue, and weight loss. Defra likes to remind us of this, and warns that M.bovis is not a disease of the past and that a risk of infection remains through consumption of unpasteurized dairy products (there has been a gourmet trend for unpasteurised milk and cheese) and through occupational exposure to TB animals and carcasses. There are 30 to 40 cases of M.bovis in humans in the UK every year, according to Public Health England. Whenever the media reports the number of TB cattle slaughtered, they often state the animals have been destroyed, leaving the public with the impression the carcasses are incinerated to prevent them entering the food chain. But this is not so. In May 2013, I was contacted by a highly effective but secretive anti cull campaigner on social media known as Spartacus. His information, obtained using the Freedom    of Information law with the government’s Animal Health Veterinary Laboratories Agency lit up a murky side trade in TB meat in the UK.  Every cow that fails the tuberculin skin test (called a reactor) is slaughtered to stop the spread of bovine TB . Defra uses market prices to compensate the farmer for the value of the cow based on age and sex, pedigree status and type (beef or dairy). All slaughtered cattle are subject to a post mortem examination to check for TB type lesions.  Up to this point no surprises, but what Spartacus had to tell was mind-boggling: up to 20,000 TB cattle were entering the food chain every year and Defra was profiting from the business... Buy the book and carry on reading