Irish TB.

[VOON 1,317]

17 minutes ago, tinytiger said:

You'd hear mad old stories all right, it was believed  by some old fellas around here that badgers would throw stones at people 

Ever hear of "smokin' badgers", John?

[tinytiger 826]

No,smoking  them out?

[Squirrel_Basher 17,100]

There are two types of TB mind .Bovine and soil born .The extensive culls around me have been going for years but still the badger survives in isolated pockets on areas that refused the cull .They tell us the areas depleted are now TB free but I've yet to see any paperwork backing up that claim and farmers will tell you anything having paid thousands towarxs the cull . .We have a large deer population too but ive only ever shot one that showed internal infection through TB .

I'e pts several badgers with the lack lustre look of the disease whilst out lamping ,a reed that no doubt would get me in trouble but one I stand by .

Any animal can carry and transmit the disease but badgers and deer are the most likely to come in contact with pastures and food,drinking areas for cattle .

[earth-thrower 493]

18 hours ago, liamdelaney said:

TB is starting to be a problem again in Ireland because of all Foreigners from TB riddled Countrys coming in here and not getting tested at entry,after all our suffering from TB we are letting it in with our door wide open.Two good friends of my own got a very serious strain of it working in the prison service, personnel who interviewed these economic migrants !!! a lot of them have also got it.You will not read about this in the papers it would probably lead to shouts of Racism.As for getting TB from digging badgers back in the day we dug plenty and kept up to forty in pens nobody ever got nothing from them.I dug one(PRE  BAN)that was very sick and looked to have TB and others were in the best of health.

" and kept up to forty in pens " ?? ,.......i will say one thing though, whether its acceptable or not ?,.....the countryman & his dogs helping the landowner, (at one time ?) with a 'badger problem', is one thing ,......but the hypocrisy of the  governments & the legislation,  thats  in place nowadays....which basically affords the  badger  'over - protected' status  (in my opinion) caused  alot of the (alleged) problems now,.....with their  over population, certainly in some spots (on the mainland, at least ?),.......BUT,...dare a (genuine) countryman, with his traps, dogs, snares, etc,......ever go near a badger & his sett,....with the intent to deal with a problem,.......then he is the lowest  of the low, etc ?,.....& will have the full weight of the law, to deal with........so what do we have now, as a result of all this ?,.......widespread state sanctioned slaughter of a 'protected' animal ????,........its a f.....g joke !

[Pirate 9000 676]

The badger protection people will have done far more damage to the badger than dog lads ever could, poor old Brock's days are numbered, control of the badger population is one thing wiping them out should be unexseptable to any right minded person, this is being driven by greedy farmers who want to keep ten times the amount of cattle on the same acreage has their father's who would of been happy with. I wonder what they will blame when Brock's gone.

[Squirrel_Basher 17,100]

I think you'e been misinformed mate .The cull is not about eradication but control of an exploding population .No one wants to see Brock gone ,just numbers vastly reduced on abnormal densities. .Don' listen to propaganda on it please. A target is set for an area and the plug is pulled when that is reached .The target is re assessed according to information given on numbers seen by contractors and if there is still time within the alotted time span a new target is set .Soil born TB is the flesh eating  disease most likely to concern terriermen ,myself having a dog infected many years ago .

[rob284 1,682]

The beauty of terrierwork is that you have a choice. Let a good specimen go or cull the weak. That in my books, would be doing the population a favour.

[Pirate 9000 676]

Foxdropper I would agree with you on the trials so far but with the amount of area s given the go head this year proper surveys of numbers are not being carried out, it's being left to farmers to give a figure which in all due respect is like telling a kid to just eat one sweet aday out of a large bag,farmers who have gone on the course are being told to over estimate the number of badgers on their farmers so the cull number will be higher it's just what I have been told.

[neil cooney 10,416]

16 minutes ago, rob284 said:

The beauty of terrierwork is that you have a choice. Let a good specimen go or cull the weak. That in my books, would be doing the population a favour.

Always said it, terrierwork is the only fieldsport apart from live trapping (where an animal might be 12 or 24 hours caught) where the hunter can assess the animals condition and decide whether to release or cull or as they did in the old days relocate.

[rob284 1,682]

Surely theres no harm in relocating in areas of sparse population, because given the opportunity they'll thrive anywhere. Has anyone ever noticed a successful relocation, where they come across the animal in the area that it was dropped? Always wondered if they actually stay, especially with entering others territories.

[Squirrel_Basher 17,100]

5 minutes ago, Pirate 9000 said:

Foxdropper I would agree with you on the trials so far but with the amount of area s given the go head this year proper surveys of numbers are not being carried out, it's being left to farmers to give a figure which in all due respect is like telling a kid to just eat one sweet aday out of a large bag,farmers who have gone on the course are being told to over estimate the number of badgers on their farmers so the cull number will be higher it's just what I have been told.

The number is reached  by white coats based on sette surveys mate and not badgers seen .Settes are scored on number of holes ,number of holes active ,number of holes partial active and holes unused .Cant tell you the formula but they havnt been far out tbh .

I totally agree terruerwork is the only true method for assessing but as it's  illegal we are left with shooting and trapping under license due to excessive numbers. 

[neil cooney 10,416]

18 minutes ago, rob284 said:

Surely theres no harm in relocating in areas of sparse population, because given the opportunity they'll thrive anywhere. Has anyone ever noticed a successful relocation, where they come across the animal in the area that it was dropped? Always wondered if they actually stay, especially with entering others territories.

Yes.

[Pirate 9000 676]

Foxdropper if your right and I'm wrong the farmer's who have been over enthusiastic with the slurry tanker are well and truly up shit Street.

[rob284 1,682]

15 minutes ago, foxdropper said:

The number is reached  by white coats based on sette surveys mate and not badgers seen .Settes are scored on number of holes ,number of holes active ,number of holes partial active and holes unused .Cant tell you the formula but they havnt been far out tbh .

I totally agree terruerwork is the only true method for assessing but as it's  illegal we are left with shooting and trapping under license due to excessive numbers. 

Haha number of holes has no correlation with numbers in the area. Ive seen 5 emerge from a tiny 1 holer only several feet of tube. Yet theres plenty of extensive setts with many active holes that only have 1 in it. No hard and fast rule imo and ive never understood how they can be confident on there population estimates when the population varies so drastically from area to area.

[dogmandont 9,805]

3 hours ago, Pirate 9000 said:

Foxdropper if your right and I'm wrong the farmer's who have been over enthusiastic with the slurry tanker are well and truly up shit Street.

Area close to me often gets the tanker treatment, rabbit burrows, fox earths, badger settes, if they can get the pipe to it it's getting filled. Cruel way for an animal to die.