UK Parliament / Open data

Badger Cull

Proceeding contribution from Neil Parish (Conservative) in the House of Commons on Thursday, 25 October 2012. It occurred during Backbench debate and e-petition debate on Badger Cull.

No, I will not, because I did give way earlier. I will carry on.

This is mainly an Opposition Back-Bench debate—[Interruption.] I did say “mainly”. If one looks at the list of speakers, I would not be far wrong. But it is the Government Benches rather than the Opposition Benches that are packed out. We have real concern about prevaricating and doing nothing, as the previous Labour Government did, and the Government are making a real effort to control the disease.

Badger numbers are interesting. Let us not forget that the Badger Trust has argued for years that there are not such numbers of badgers in the country, but the badger population has continually increased and become more diseased. As that population grows, badgers become more adventurous and are much more likely to enter cattle sheds and infect cattle. Increased numbers of badgers and diseased badgers create a problem not only for cattle, but for wildlife and wildlife management.

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
551 c1131 
Session
2012-13
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
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