Queen guitarist Brian May is to front in a brand new BBC documentary about Bovine Tuberculosis (bTB) and badger culling.
The news is not so surprising at the rock star has long been an advocate for animal rights and a fierce opponent to the practise of Badger culling across the UK.
‘Brian May: The Badgers, The Farmers And Me’ will follow Mays four-year long endeavour to eradicate the disease and prevent the practise of badger culling.
According to the RSPCA bovine TB is “an infectious disease of cattle. It’s caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis), which can also cause disease in many other mammals, including badgers.”
Bovine TB can devastate cattle populations and has thus resulted in the culling of hundreds of thousands of badgers as they are believed to be a large spreader of the disease.
“I believe they’ll eventually turn farming practices upside down.”
Writing for the Radio Times, May compared the issue to the Post Office Scandal of 1999: “You’ll see the monumental failure of British authorities to deal with the terrible problem of bovine TB, and the tragically wasteful slaughter of cows and badgers. Our findings, tracking years of research, are revolutionary and shocking – some will say heretical. I believe they’ll eventually turn farming practices upside down.”
May says that in the last 12 years over a quarter of a million badgers have been slaughtered in the name of preventing the spread of bovine TB.
“this policy has utterly failed them,”
“The testimony of farmers in my film is that this policy has utterly failed them. Rates of infection and consequent numbers of cows slaughtered are no better and, in some areas, worse than ever.”
The documentary follows May and a team of scientists at Gatcombe Farm as they attempt to disprove the belief that badger culling prevents the spread of bovine TB.
“At Gatcombe, we believe we have enough evidence to assert confidently that the very idea that badgers are part of the reinfection process is unsupportable, and has been an enormous red herring, standing in the way of a proper strategy to eliminate the transmission of the pathogen within the herds.” he writes. “But in spite of this, consecutive governments, together with the National Farmers Union, have clung to the idea that they know better.”
“no more effective than burning those unfortunate witches.”
“In pursuing the tragic badger cull, which has always been morally indefensible, we believe that science has made one of the biggest and most costly mistakes in history – hanging on to a policy that, in time, will be seen as no more effective than burning those unfortunate witches.”
‘Brian May: The Badgers, The Farmers and Me’ airs on BBC Two on the 23rd of August at 9pm.
