Badger Cull - Hope is not enough

I HAVE always been interested in
words and like many others I
suspect, I was dismayed to hear
of the start of the badger cull in
West Somerset this week.
Don’t get me wrong, I have
every sympathy with the poor
struggling farmers whose
animals have succumbed to
bovine TB, often it is thought,
due to badgers.
However, from the little
information I have been able to
obtain about the ‘cull’, it is not
intended to wipe out the badger
population, so what of those that
are left?
How, when shooting them, is
one to determine whether or not
they are infected?
National Farmers’ Union (NFU)
president Peter Kendall said he
“hopes the culls will show a
reduction in TB in cattle”.
Is ‘hope’ good enough? It
suggests to me that there is a
lack of firm evidence, otherwise
I would expect him to be more
confident in his selection of
words.
LINDA PIGGOTT-VIJEH