Friday, May 31, 2013




Bovine TB: Culling Trials have been democratically tested and must be allowed to proceed uninterrupted.
South West Landowners have thrown their weight behind farming minister David Heath’s calls for the badger cull pilot schemes to be allowed to go ahead without interruption from individuals or groups who disagree with the policy.
Trials are authorised to start tomorrow (1 June) to test whether shooting offers a humane and efficient option for culling infected badgers and CLA South West Director, John Mortimer, says it is essential that the pilot schemes are allowed to go ahead without disruption in order to get a clear answer to that question.
“These proposals have survived the democratic process, having been debated in Parliament and tested in the courts. The Minister spoke to us at length at this week’s Royal Bath and West Show and he has our unqualified support in calling on people not to attempt to disrupt the trials.
“For too long the debate has been clouded by politics rather than public interest and livestock farmers have been left fighting a disease with both hands tied behind their backs watching some 30,000 cattle - including pregnant heifers and calves - sent for slaughter every year. Now, for the first time in three decades, we have a Government which is prepared to put its head above the parapet and instigate an ongoing programme of control and containment,” he said.
 “Bovine TB is as debilitating a disease for wildlife as it is for cattle and yet the action to combat it has never been equivalent to the scale of the problem. The cost to the public purse will top a billion pounds over ten years but the cost in human terms, the misery and suffering caused to farming families, is immeasurable.”
Mr Mortimer said that on an issue as contentious as Bovine TB control it was inevitable that opinions will be divided - but the fact remained that badgers represent a significant reservoir of Mycobacterium Bovis, the bacterium which causes bovine TB and, where there were infected badgers, there was a TB risk to cattle, camelids and goats.
“In other parts of the world it has been accepted that without controlling the disease in wildlife there is little or no chance of bringing it back under control in farm and domestic animals.
“Everybody accepts that culling is only one part of a variety of measures that will have to be employed to beat this disease and that bio-security, cattle movement controls and, eventually, vaccine will all have a part to play. But there is currently no deployable vaccine which can cure an infected badger and there are no vaccines licensed for use in cattle either to prevent or control bovine TB.”
The Government and the industry had trod a rocky road to get to a point where licences have been issued to hold trial culls.
That has required political bravery and determination and it is now incumbent upon the rest of the population to allow these trials to be conducted in a proper manner because we should be under no illusion, without this action being taken as a matter of urgency we may never catch up with this disease and could find ourselves instead in a situation where livestock farming is unsustainable in our part of the world.”




Thursday, May 30, 2013

Fight against rural crime is a two way street

Rural crime costs private landowners, rural businesses and individual householders millions of pounds a year and poses a real threat to the stability of the rural economy – but the fight against rural crime is a two-way street which requires action from the rural population as well as the police.
That’s the message the South West director of the Country Land and Business Association, John Mortimer, delivered to Avon and Somerset Chief Constable, Nick Gargen and the Police and Crime Commissioner,Sue Mountstevens, at the Royal Bath and West Show today (Thursday 30 May).
“Beating rural crime will involve farmers and landowners taking some ownership of the problem, ensuring that they have taken every possible precaution to make the criminals’ lives difficult – marking their property, fitting trackers and taking specialist security advice. But it also means the police responding in an appropriate and speedy manner. It means police improving their understanding of the impact of rural crimes and communicating much better with the victims of crime,” he said.
Top of the rural crime list – which is estimated to cost farmers and landowners more than £50 million a year – is the theft of machinery, such as quad bikes and other transportable equipment. Mr Mortimer says that owners can have a real impact on this by reviewing their security arrangements, fitting better locks and ensuring that their machines have trackers fitted. Sheep and cattle rustling, fly tipping, hare coursing and poaching and metal theft all feature on the rural crime hit list and Mr Mortimer says that the CLA in the South West is working closely with all police forces to improve best practice on both sides of the street.
“We recently held a series of very successful Rural Crime conferences in conjunction with Devon and Cornwall Constabulary and one of the key points to come out of that was the need for better communication from both sides. It is essential that farmers, landowners and people in rural communities report all crimes and suspicious activity and, as the Chief Constable told us, the most difficult crime to solve is the one that hasn’t been reported. Politicians and the police cannot get a clear picture of the reality of rural crime if people do not report it.
“Although crime in general is falling, rural crime is on the increase – even though we know that it is being under-reported. Sometimes we can be our own worst enemy but if we want to get rid of the scourge of rural crime then we have to meet it head on and have confidence in the police to deal with it.”
Mr Mortimer told the Chief Constable that the CLA welcomed the move to organise closer co-operation between the region’s forces at a strategic level in regard to such things as armed response units, but stressed that it was also important the police forces cooperated with each in order to bring criminals operating in our rural communities to justice.