Staffordshire Badger Conservation Group

NEWS

Sample Newsletter

August 1st 2011

The site 38 degrees have launched a petition against the badger cull after the poll to see if there was support for a petition resulted in an 87% yes vote.

To sign the petion  click here  

July 21st 2011

Badger cull to go ahead

Caroline Spelman, secretary of state for the environment has announced that she is "strongly minded" to allow a cull of badgers.
A consultation will decide whether free shooting of badgers will be humane, safe and effective and this will be followed next year by two trial culls.

What you can do

The Guardian newspaper is running a poll.

You can vote against the cull by following this link

The League against cruel sports is mounting a petition against the shooting of badgers which they fear will become a new blood sport.

you can sign the petition by following this link. 

The site 38 degrees which was instrumental in getting the public support against the sell off of forests are holding a poll to decide whether to fight the badger cull.

To visit this site and vote in the poll follow this link 

Visit us again to find out what the Badger Trust intends to do to fight this decision

March 30th 2011

Membership fees are changing

We would like to thank our current members for their support. Your membership fees are essential to our work and we want to reassure you that our fees are not increasing. However, we have changed the structure of our membership and have introduced new categories.

You can find details of the new fees HERE

March 24th 2011

Badger cull in Wales
A motion by 4 members of the Welsh Assembly Government to annul The Badger (Control Area) (Wales) Order 2011 failed yesterday.
8 members voted in favour of the annulment and 42 members voted in favour of the order remaining in force.
The Badger Trust is discussing the implications with legal advisors to see if there are any grounds for a judicial review.

You can read the Badger Trust response on their  website

Proposed Badger cull in England
The government decision on whether to go ahead with a badger cull following the public consultation which was promised early in 2011 has been delayed and may come as late as May
We will bring you further news of what you can do as soon as we can.

October 20th 2010

URGENT
The Badger Trust have issued advice on responding to the Consultation document about the proposed cull. You can read the advice here.

The advice has also been issued in the form of a leaflet for distribution to the public. 

The cover is shown       (click on the picture to enlarge)

Leaflets may be obtained from us. Please give the number required and the delivery address. Both the leaflets and the postage are free of charge.

Contact us by e mail  here

or visit our contact us page 

October 6th 2010

We have a winner for the wildlife Quiz 2010. The winner comes from Leek.

ANSWERS TO THE QUIZ CAN BE FOUND HERE

September 20th 2010

The Welsh Assembly today announced their intention to cull badgers in parts of Pembrokeshire and surrounding areas.

To access the Welsh Assembly website information on bovine TB

To comment on the Wesh Assembly consultation online

September 15th 2010

The Coalition Government today made an announcement regarding the possible culling of badgers in England and Wales.

DEFRA have issued a 12 week consultation document.

To read the consultation document on the DEFRA website

To comment on the consultation document

e mail           tbbc@defra.gsi.gov.uk     or

Write to        TBBC mailbox
                     Nobel House
                     17 Smith Square
                     London SW1P 3JR

July 13th 2010

Today  the Court of Appeal handed down judgment finding the proposed Welsh badger cull to be unlawful on all three grounds they raised on appeal.

By law badgers may only be culled if such culling would “eliminate or substantially reduce” the incidence of TB in cattle. The Badger Trust successfully argued that the High Court made an error of law in holding:

•         that the words “substantially reduce” in section 21(2)(b) of the Animal Health Act 1981 meant simply any reduction in TB that was “more than merely minor or trivial”; and

•         that, once it arose, the discretion to make an order under section 21(2) could lawfully be exercised without the Minister doing any balancing act to consider the harm   involved (i.e. killing over 2,000 badgers) against the potential benefit (which the Minister’s own model predicted to be a reduction in the rate of cattle herd breakdowns of just 0.3% of farms annually).

•         In addition, the Trust argued that the Ministers erred in making an Order for the whole of Wales having only consulted on the basis of the Pembrokeshire IAPA (Intensive Action Pilot Area) and on the basis of evidence which, at best, supported culling in the IAPA only. The Welsh Ministers conceded the appeal by reference to this point and the court unanimously agreed that it rendered the Order unlawful notwithstanding their findings on the first two points.

July 5th 2010

Welsh Ministers today  conceded an appeal by the Badger Trust on the basis of one of three grounds: that the 2009 Order which permitted culling in the whole of Wales (even in the many areas where TB is not a problem) was not supported by evidence and was unlawful as a result.

June 11th  2010 

The Welsh Assembly Government has today agreed to postpone the badger cull pending the Court of Appeal’s consideration of a challenge to the cull’s legality. Earlier this week the Trust was granted permission to take its case to the Court of Appeal by Lord Justice Elias who noted that the Trust had real prospects of success and ordered an urgent hearing of the matter.

The hearing will take place at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on 30th June 2010.

June 7th  2010 

Members of the SBCG recently rescued an orphaned cub from Dudley which has now safely arrived at "Secret World" in Somerset.
A full report with photos in the Summer Newsletter.

DIARY

October 2nd

Open meeting

October 1st has been designated BADGER DAY so to mark the occasion we have decided to hold an open meeting on Sunday 2nd October.

The meeting is open to members and non members and will be held at Wolseley Centre Gatehouse between 1pm and 3pm.

Come and meet the committee and hear about our work. There will be refreshments and short talks and an opportunity to find out what you can do to help badgers in Staffordshire.

e mail us to say you are coming or just turn up on the day

August 29th

Country Fayre and Farm Fun Day at Rushton

We will be having a stall at this event. Please visit us