Badgered to Death: The People and Politics of the Badger Cull

A vital read for anyone who cares about the future of British wildlife. With a foreword by the BBC TV presenter Chris Packham.

'A thriller, whodunnit and impassioned polemic.' - PATRICK BARKHAM, THE GUARDIAN

Dominic Dyer explores the science and electioneering behind Britain's most controversial wildlife policy: the badger cull.

He exposes the catastrophic handling of bovine TB by the British government, the political manoeuvring that engineered the badger cull in 2010, and the ongoing close relationship in perpetuating the cull between the National Farmers Union and the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

He shines an unflattering spotlight on Cabinet ministers, the veterinary profession, environmental NGOs and the BBC.


Introduction by Chris Packham

How viciously fickle we are. We arbitrarily pick and choose which species we like or dislike, normally and sadly based on purely anthropomorphic criteria, and then either laud or loathe them paying scant attention to the realities of their lives, or ours. And once cursed and demonised that tag is almost impossible to redress. Think rat, think fox... damned for historical crimes, firmly fixed as malevolent vermin, even in our supposedly enlightened age. But as this book displays we can also be quick to destroy the reputation of our animal heroes and blight their status with bigotry and ignorance.

For many reasons we had come to love the badger, to cherish and admire it, to protect and celebrate it and of course many still do. But the reputation of this essential member of the UK's ecology has been targeted by a smear campaign which has been swallowed by the gullible and fuelled by those with vested interests. You see, in spite of all the science and all the truths that it outlines, the badger has become a scapegoat. Its been branded a 'bad guy' and is being persecuted as such. It's a terrible shame, but like I said, how fickle, how vicious, how predictably human.

Buy the book and carry on reading Chris Packham's introduction.