The reason we are here …. On the search for TRUTH in the fight against bovine TB in cattle. One correction – to date almost a QUARTER of a million British badgers have been killed. And now back to making this documentary – today we are filming us speaking on camera with the farmer about his journey.
Brian May on the search for truth: Bovine TB – 2 Aug 2023- https://youtu.be/_5XrHaFky3Q
APPOXIMATE TRANSCRIPT [E&OE]
“In this beautiful spot in the Gower with a farmer who we met just before COVID struck, and you can see a lot of sheep here. We can’t see any cows. This farmer had a giant herd of cattle and at a stroke lost the whole herd to bovine TB. Still heartbroken and still trying to figure out how it happened. So this is part of the trail of finding out the truth about the Badger cull and bovine TB, how it came about and how it can be defeated – because this produces misery for countless farmers in the UK, and killed countless cows, and is the cause of the killing of almost half a million badgers in the belief that killing badgers would solve the problem it hasn’t.
Where we do our farming, Gatcombe Devon, all around us [are] farmers who believe that the cull was going to get them out of the problem that they were in. The problem got worse last year, and there are no more badgers to kill. Realisation dawning badgers are not the cause of this whole thing, and that the reservoir of infection contrary towards Owen Patterson and all the other Ministers of the Environment have been telling us, that the source of infection, the source of reinfection, is within the herd every time undetected – cattle who become infected and eventually infectious. And of course, the cycle goes on.
[So that’s why I’m going to say.]
We’re doing a documentary for the BBC, of which this is a part. But it’s a long trek. And as I speak, they just are still being killed and the farmers are no better off. In fact, the farmers are in many cases giving up because it’s so incredibly hard and they get so little help from the Government or DEFRA or anyone else. And strangely enough, we, the bad guys who seem to be opposing the way of solving the problem are now being seen as a possible way of finding the correct way to deal with the problem, the effective way to deal with the problem. So that’s what we’re on the trail. And it’s a beautiful day. Some of the time.” BRI
A spontaneous thought from Save-Me CEO Anne Brummer.
Bri
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Saying farewell for now to Vivian at his farm in the Gower, South Wales. Vivian, a very decent and caring farmer, took meticulous care of his cattle, until one day, out of the blue, the whole herd failed the SICCT skin test for bovine TB, and he lost them all, along with his livelihood, and his family’s whole way of life. He and his wife have fiercely fought back, as you’ll see in the documentary we’re making with the BBC. But in the ten years since this happened, the situation has only got worse for cattle farmers, indicating that a massive rethink is required, focussing on transmission of the pathogen within the herd, instead of clinging to the notion that the problem in cows can be solved by messing with surrounding wildlife, and testing and removing cows using a completely unreliable skin test. It’s all been a tragic mistake, and the NFU, DEFRA and governments from Cameron onwards have catastrophically failed the farmers. We dare to hope that we can help put and end to this fiasco. If we can’t, all Britain’s cattle farmers can look forward to is more misery.
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Brian May: Returning home – Hats off to Wales 2 Aug 2023– https://youtu.be/QkGyam5iPJw
And so returning home with another piece of the jigsaw puzzle. But at least hats off to Wales for looking for a humane solution. Sadly England is a blood bath. I vow never to give up until the Truth is recognised.
Bri