Brian May: 'My badger culling documentary will outrage viewers'

You’ll see the monumental failure of British authorities to deal with the terrible problem of bovine TB, and the tragically wasteful slaughter of cows and badgers. Our findings, tracking years of research, are revolutionary and shocking – some will say heretical. I believe they’ll eventually turn farming practices upside down.

In the last 12 years, a quarter of a million badgers have been slaughtered, based on the belief that they spread TB among cattle. The testimony of farmers in my film is that this policy has utterly failed them. Rates of infection and consequent numbers of cows slaughtered are no better and, in some areas, worse than ever.

At Gatcombe Farm in Devon, rather than fight farmers over the issue, Anne Brummer (CEO of animal welfare charity Save Me Trust) and I have effectively become farmers ourselves. We’ve transformed dairy man Robert Reid’s chronically infected cattle into a healthy herd with certified TB-Free status, without killing a single badger.

The results of our own experiment make it plain that blaming the badgers has been a wildly mistaken reading of the facts. How can this have been allowed to happen?

There’s only been one properly conducted scientific experiment to determine whether killing badgers would eradicate bovine TB in cattle. The very clear conclusion of the Randomised Badger Culling Trial, in 2007, was that "culling badgers can make no meaningful contribution to the control of bovine TB in cattle".

But in spite of this, consecutive governments, together with the National Farmers Union, have clung to the idea that they know better. They acted on the advice of a succession of papers published by a small group of scientists claiming to have seen improvements in the welfare of cattle following the culling programme, or claiming that their modelling theoretically supported this idea.

At Gatcombe, we believe we have enough evidence to assert confidently that the very idea that badgers are part of the reinfection process is unsupportable, and has been an enormous red herring, standing in the way of a proper strategy to eliminate the transmission of the pathogen within the herds.

What we also have is a blueprint to eradicate this disease in cattle in a small number of years. Our "Gatcombe Protocol" measures involve enhanced testing to find infected animals earlier, and scrupulous hygiene to get rid of cow excrement before it can pass the disease on within the herd. They offer hope where all hope, among so many farming communities, has trickled away.

Who is telling the truth? This documentary is the first time an alternative point of view has been presented to the public. Of course, our claims will be attacked, and attempts will be made to discredit our views. But the public will decide, and history will eventually make its judgment.

How could we be so impertinent to assert that a whole bank of scientific study has been wrong? Well, a century ago a similarly persistent volume of analysis was published by a learned group of scientists on the subject of the canals on Mars, until it was finally proved that they didn’t exist.

In the 19th century, Queen Victoria’s physician single-handedly solved the problem of cholera in humans by overturning the universally held view among learned men that the disease was transmitted through the air. And a century before that, we were still burning witches at the stake in the firm belief that they were responsible for our problems.

In pursuing the tragic badger cull, which has always been morally indefensible, we believe that science has made one of the biggest and most costly mistakes in history – hanging on to a policy that, in time, will be seen as no more effective than burning those unfortunate witches.

Responses:

NFU president Tom Bradshaw said: "Bovine TB (bTB) continues to have a huge impact on thousands of farming families across the country and the emotional, mental, and financial strain this devastating disease causes is enormous. More than 19,500 cattle were slaughtered in England in the 12 months to September 2023 because of bTB.

"The current government strategy to control and eradicate bTB, which gives farmers access to multiple measures to tackle the disease, has been hugely successful. New data in the Birch Review provided further evidence of this, demonstrating the herd incidence rate of TB reduced by 56 per cent in areas that have had four or more years of wildlife control. The new Defra secretary of state has acknowledged the successes reported and the importance of maintaining momentum.

"The NFU will continue to work with its members and government to ensure a successful strategy to eradicate bTB continues to be based on sound science and evidence."

A Defra spokesperson said: "We recognise the devastating impact bovine TB has on the farming community, which is why we are committed to working with farmers and scientists on measures to eradicate this disease.

"This government will roll out a TB eradication package including vaccination, herd management and biosecurity measures to protect farmers’ livelihoods and end the badger cull."

Brian May: The Badgers, The Farmers and Me will air on Friday 23rd August at 9pm on BBC Two.

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