Badgers and Bovine TB
Debate between Andrew Miller and Neil Parish(13 years, 1 month ago)
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Andrew Miller
Let me point out to the hon. Gentleman that in an article from 17 September 2010, the Minister said,
“my view is that free shooting would, in most cases, be by far the most effective option.”
Neil Parish
The hon. Gentleman will find that the issue has been looked at again, and that controlled shooting is the idea being proposed. We will train people to take part in that, so that it can be done humanely. That is absolutely vital. The hon. Gentleman also mentioned the comments of Lord Krebs after his trials, but many people dispute whether those trials were accurate. I believe that reducing the infected badger population will reduce the incidence of TB in cattle. There are no two ways about that; we must tackle the issue.
I will not repeat what has already been said, but I have a final point about cattle valuation. My hon. Friend the Member for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire (Simon Hart) spoke earlier of the problem of pedigree cattle being taken out of England that are under tabular valuation. Those over 36 months old receive less compensation than non-pedigree cattle, and many farmers in Devon have to go to markets in Somerset and compete with Welsh farmers who have received huge amounts of compensation. It is necessary to get the valuations right.
I very much support what Ministers are doing. For too long, we have wrung our hands on this issue. We must take action, and take action now.
[Mr Christopher Chope in the Chair]