Cull of badgers in Wales

[selimap]

As well as signing the RSPCA petition etc, I think the time has now come for direct comment to the Welsh Assembly Government and for much more publicity to the Welsh Public. The latter are mostly unaware of the proposed cull, and nearly entirely unaware that there will be economic consequences for Wales as potential tourists change their mind.

I believe it will be particularly effective for individuals from outside Wales to make their feelings known to the Welsh public and politely state how killing our badgers might affect their views of Wales and might influence their decisions re holidays, purchases of Welsh products etc IF it goes ahead.

To the extent that you are not already doing so, please publicise the issue to your members, constituent organisations and contacts and ask them to start writing letters etc.

You can do this by writing your own letter to the newspaper of your choice, or post to other fora, and write to the minister responsible for the decision:

Elin Jones, Minister for Rural Affairs, Correspondence.Elin.Jones@wales.gsi.gov.uk (and copy to your Assembly Member if you live in Wales). By snail mail to:
Elin Jones
Minister for Rural Affairs
Welsh Assembly Government
5th Floor
Ty Hywel
Cardiff Bay
CF99 1NA

If you think there may be collateral damage to our tourist industry, you could also write to, or copy, the "Minister for Heritage", Alun Ffred Jones at: correspondence.Alun.Ffred.Jones@Wales.GSI.gov.UK or the postal address as above

The nearest we have to a national newspaper in Wales is the Western Mail. Letters can be sent to readers@mediawales.co.uk. The publishers of the W Mail and other papers also run an online forum at icWales is now WalesOnline - Wales news, Welsh business news, jobs in Wales

We don't have enough large native mammals to start slaughtering them on unscientific grounds.

[stripee]

Originally Posted by selimap

As well as signing the RSPCA petition etc, I think the time has now come for direct comment to the Welsh Assembly Government and for much more publicity to the Welsh Public. The latter are mostly unaware of the proposed cull, and nearly entirely unaware that there will be economic consequences for Wales...

The reason for lack of awareness is that the Welsh Assembly government is doing its best to stifle debate (although not entirely succeeding).

The committee responsible for planning the cull is not publishing any of its minutes, meets secretly and is composed of almost entirely pro-cull members. Such as Brian Walters, NFU Cymru president, Carmarthenshire farmer and Stephen James, Farmers Union Wales, Pembs farmer, and the National Beef Association. It has kept the badgers groups off. The WAG say they want to prevent demonstrations and protests. However, these are legal in a democracy and noone is able to criticise their approach. They want to be able to present the policy in early 2009 as a fait accompli.

The original vote for the pilot cull was 38 assembly members for, and 12 against. Only 1 Labour member voted for the cull, the rest were mostly Plaid Cymru. Plaid are looking for nationalist support in this case found among some of the voters from farming communities. Elin Jones is a Plaid minister. In this devolved government only a small number of people are needed to vote to carry through a policy. Some Westminster MPs signed an early day motion to try to voice their concerns over the Welsh plans in the summer.

The most likely area is Carmarthenshire/Pembrokeshire. It looks like there will be a further "Badger found dead survey" (RTAs etc tested for bovine TB) in one of these counties, and I suspect this will be in an area chosen for the cull and used to back up reasons for doing one, eg 10% of badgers are reactors, lets kill the other 90% as well.