h a l f b a k e r yQuis custodiet the custard?
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In the UK we have an issue with farmers wanting to
kill badgers as they might spread Bovine TB to their
cattle. The alternative argument is that increased
badger migration (by potentially diseased badger)
into this recently cleared area of badger prime real
estate, will mean a short lived
benefit.
The solution "Badger Jackets".
The profits used to breed and relocate healthy TB
free badgers for release in recently purged badger
populations in cattle areas and purchase land for
permanent badger habitats.
Healthier badgers, nice fur coats for happy farmers
who will wear their badger coats with pride and a
large cull. (not sure of the quality of Badger pelts
so they may in fact not be wearing them with
pride, but they will enthusiastically purchase them
with pride, in support of fellow farmers who
seemingly require these culls. If the TB comes
back we can just repeat the exercise every year.
And if this doesn't work we could kill the bovine TB
infected cattle and wear them as shoes.
I wonder how much a Panda pelt could be worth?
Stop The Cull details
http://www.fwi.co.u...cull-opposition.htm
[xenzag, Oct 12 2012]
Better not share my name
http://www.theregis...bsite_hosted_in_us/
UK.gov tries to close site giving home addresses of badger cull figures [PainOCommonSense, Oct 12 2012]
Badger pelts 'r' us!
http://www.fursourc...ed-skins-p-377.html
Well, actually they 'r' usa as it happens. They also do sheared beaver. [MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 14 2012]
[link]
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If I saw anyone wearing a coat made out of a badger, I would purchase a large bucket of white paint and empty it over them, followed by a bag of multi coloured "smarties". I suspect others may resort to acts of physical violence leading to bodily harm. |
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I happen to be wearing shoes made of dead Cow. Can I
expect the same level of treatment? |
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If cows were a protected species similar to that of the Badger - the answer to that is Yes, only less paint would be needed. |
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//I'm not so sure about the physical violence// I am certain of it. Animal Rights groups can be very militant, and have used extreme tactics before. Anyone wearing a coat made out of Badger fur/skin is wearing a target and inviting trouble to be visited upon them. This is a bad idea, and attracts my first bone of the week. [-] |
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Whatever happened to the unpopular because more expensive inoculation option? As to wearing the remains of a culled diseased badger, no thank you. |
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You're talking about killing off a population, making jackets out of them, then reintroducing new, known-healthy badgers to the locale ? Why not sedate them, check them out, rerelease the well ones with a dab of orange paint on them so they aren't reprocessed. |
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This sounds similar to my scheme for Aussie feral cats: catch, perform vasectomy/tubal-ligation, vaccinate and feed them up, marke them then release. |
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The healthier sterile cats are still hormone driven and waste/circumvent the breeding efforts of the unfixed ferals, thus the population wanes with minimal effort and no cruelty. |
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//large bucket of white paint and empty it over// |
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//with a dab of orange paint// |
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Why this sudden obsession with painting things? |
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//...my scheme for Aussie feral cats: catch, perform vasectomy/tubal-ligation, vaccinate and feed them up, marke them then release.// |
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Female cats mate with multiple males, so sterilising the males is probably not going to make much difference. Your scheme would work if you could sterilise a high enough proportion of the females to drive the population to extinction. That must be quite a high percentage over several generations. |
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yes, but a male in good physical condition (which the sterilized ones will be, having been fixed up and vaccinated) can scare off one in lesser condition. |
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Mostly though, a sterile female in heat will attract and concentrate suitors from miles around, to all waste their time. |
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A straight cull has no effect: new feral cats fill the gap. Catch/neuter/release has the advantage of blocking that by occupying the food source. Catch/sterilize/release while keeping hormones intact, not only does that but actively blocks breeding. |
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Wow that's a lot of bones for Badger Jackets idea,
remember I am not supporting the killing of badgers,
more trying to turn this cull around to benefit of the
badgers, funded by the farmers, but hey if [xenzag] &
friends prefers straight and cheap mass slaughter
that's also fine by me. I have to say I think the last bit
of my suggestion, the purchase of permanent
sanctuary for badger populations appears to have been
glossed over. |
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Unfortunately the [Phrontistery] idea to immunise
has only been adopted in Wales not the rest of the UK.
This idea is more of a farmer funded scheme to profit
from the cull and purchase land. The aim is not to
hold down the badger population, ala sterile males. |
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As a compromise, I felt that it was much better than
just plain killing them and allowing the disease to
come back via badger migration. However if you
prefer not to allow other people to wear the dead fur
of a badger that has already been killed as part of the
cull, that's fine. I can't see how wearing them is going
to make matters worse. btw turns out that those
premium shaving brushes that folks give their dads on
fathers day are made from Badger fur. Not sure how
they get the fur but hopefully some of the residual
badger carcasses will server some practical purpose
there. |
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Badger fur shaving brushes are generally made from badgers bred in China. They aren't the usual black and white sort we get here, but still badgers. Even brushes 'made in England' aren't from British fur because of the illegality of capturing badgers (even without killing them). |
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Thanks Tom I feel more relaxed in the knowledge that
someone else's badgers are being used. Particularly
liked the commend covering off the removal of fur
from live animals scenario. |
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The response reminds me a little of the research into
the
cat impact on bird populations...death threats to the
statistician that was going to check, before he even
suggested a conclusion. (mental note better not print
a
T-shirt with my idea ala Barry Thew.) |
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//...badger carcasses will [serve] some practical purpose...// |
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And maybe you could alternate with some of [Max]'s moles; he seems to have plenty of those... [+] |
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[+] not only because we like the idea but
because it upsets sandal-wearing Guardian-
reading vegetarians who have probably never
been within a kilometre of a real farm in
their entire valueless lives. |
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//I can't see how wearing them is going to make matters worse.//
If you create a demand you will create an industry. Simple economics. One of the fishbones is mine. Well, it was mine. It's yours now, obviously. Wear it with pride..unlike your badger jacket! |
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For the record I really like badgers ! and live very near
the country side and would rather not have to have them
killed. they grunt like pigs and are very flat and move
like you would not believe. |
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//Innoculate the cows...that seems astoundingly easy// or stop eating them, which is easier again. |
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Saw an opossum the other day. |
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I still don't see how making badger coats has anything to do with introducing fresh badgers to a culled area. |
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The Govt cant afford to inoculate apparently, but the
farmers feel very strongly about this. They already look
like tweed wearing idiots, now they get to wear badger
fur. Their country side alliance friends can support them
by buying fur jackets and we spend the money
repopulating the purged areas and purchasing special land
for free breeding for perpetuity, all funded by the extravagant fur trade and bizarrely strong support for all
things countryside-alliance related. |
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//but the farmers feel very strongly about this// Many more non-farmers feel even stronger, including several experts who have asserted that the cull won't work and in fact will exacerbate the problem for many reasons. |
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I actually have a better idea.... cull the farmers instead. |
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Badgers hold a special place in the psyche, which perhaps can only be understood by those who have grown up with classics such as Wind in The Willows. |
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Possibly as distinct from those who have grown up
with classics such as badgers. |
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//I actually have a better idea.... cull the farmers instead// |
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I hope you are the sort of person who grows all of their own food, or barters with the next-door smallholder. |
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//Badgers hold a special place in the psyche, which perhaps can only be understood by those who have grown up with classics such as Wind in The Willows.// |
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Also, please say you're not the sort who won't eat rabbit because of Beatrix Potter. |
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I think there is a difference between refusing to eat a certain animal because it is too cute-looking, and objecting to a wholesale cull of a certain animal saving the meat growing industry from cleaning up its operations. |
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^^ That's a fair point, but what I mean is that the reasons for supporting such a scheme or not should be mainly based on reason and logic rather than a cuteness factor. The former is the reason why I'm not a fan of the scheme, while 'Wind in the Willows', despite being a childhood favourite, is a negligable factor; rather like one of the less significant terms that are left out in a binomial approximation. |
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I still agree with the original point of the idea which is to make the best of a bad situation. |
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// meat growing industry // |
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Bovine TB is mainly a problem for dairy
farmers. |
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Your manifest unfamiliarity with the facts of
the situation does not help in reinforcing
your opinion. This is generically true; for your
argument to carry weight, you must be able
to quote irrefutable facts and demonstrate a
clear and objective view of the overall
situation. |
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//should be mainly based on reason and logic // |
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I agree. I occasionally rub professional shoulders
with ecologists and conservationists. I am
impressed that, more often than not, they are
very hard-nosed and hard-science. They generally
don't do cutesy and, if all the sharks were starving
to death and the only available food was badgers,
I think there would be fewer badgers. |
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//please say you're not the sort who won't eat rabbit because of Beatrix Potter.// I won't eat rabbit because of Beatrix Potter. (actually I haven't eaten any meat in more than 25 years) |
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//manifest unfamiliarity with the facts of the situation// I wasn't referring to a particular situation, I was generalising hypothetically. |
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There are several people and dining societies who
have, over the centuries, tried to eat their way
through as broad a phylogeny as possible. |
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I think it may be well worth instigating the Beatrix
Potter Dining Society, with the express purpose of
eating its way through the characters in the books of
Ms. Potter, Gavin Maxwell, Richard Adams (not much
culinobiodiversity there, granted), Walt Disney, and
others of that ilk. Or elk. |
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//... dining societies who have, over the centuries, tried to eat their way through as broad a phylogeny as possible.// |
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On TV, I once saw part of a speech made at such a gathering - IIRC they called themselves the carnivore society. The guy stated that he wanted to eat a vegetarian.
I decided that if I got the chance to prepare him a meal I could serve human black pudding. It would be interesting to see whether he'd actually eat it or it was just bluster. |
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I thought that was discussed and everyone, but [hippo] in particular, conceded to my main remarks that 1) it is frivolous if the nutriment is derived from one's own body 2) it develops a taste for human flesh 3) blood products are scarce and best used to heal the injured. |
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//develops a taste for human flesh// |
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I don't see the harm in that. I have a taste for beef
but I don't go out shooting cattle. |
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Well, at least not deliberately. Or was that
Sturton again ? |
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We understand that placentae are consumed
by some members of your species. Since this
is a protein source that would otherwise be
discarded, and causes no harm to the
organism producing it (having fulfilled its
purpose, it is superfluous), there are no moral
or ethical issues surrounding its consumption;
only the "EEEeeeeeewwwww" factor. |
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You see the harm and present an argument wherein you lie! |
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I would question the hygiene factor in placenta
consumption, given that the staff have more pressing
concerns than your dinner. |
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I have heard and seen first hand of many people who
seem to have the urge to nibble on their own scabs, dried
nasal discharge and spots. Nutritionally do you think
perhaps humans evolved this desire, as a form of
nutritional supplement? |
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It may also be that nibbling the products of an
infected wound might possibly, by administering the
same bacteria orally, stimulate some kind of
immune reaction. |
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At the same time, though, eating anyone _else's_
placenta is probably a bad idea, disease-wise. |
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