Member News
26th October 2012The chief executive of the RSPCA has called on farmers, vets and politicians to work together on bovine TB.
Gavin Grant spoke to Central Lobby after last night's vote in the Commons in which MPs rejected government plans for a mass cull of badgers.
The House voted 147 to 28 in favour of a motion calling for the cull in areas of England to be abandoned entirely.
Earlier this week Environment Secretary Owen Paterson announced the cull would be postponed until next year.
The RSPCA has spearheaded a campaign opposing the mass killing, and Mr Grant said he was "delighted" that MPs had backed their stance.
"Parliament has spoken up for good science and good sense and the people, who are overwhelmingly against the government's plans to cull.
"That was the sentiment not just in England as a whole; it was very clear to me having visited the cull zones that that was also the sentiment there among quite a lot of farmers and landowners."
After what he concedes has been an intense couple of weeks of campaigning and sides being taken, Mr Grant now wants to "bring people together and do work that will tackle TB, not scapegoat the badger".
"Can we all get together and focus on what needs to be done and get away from confrontational headlines? I make that invite to the NFU and to (farming minister) David Heath, my colleagues on Team Badger, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and our friends in Europe."
Mr Grant says the fact the Commons vote against the cull was cross-party is very important to the RSPCA.
"It was not government versus opposition, it was MPs of all parties listening to the evidence and to their constituents and animal welfare groups and many farmers who are on our side," he explained.
"There are alternative ways forward here. We need to press forward in Brussels to get a vaccine approved. Right across Wales they are vaccinating badgers. The National Trust and RSPCA stand ready to play our part in all of those efforts, such as working with sister organisations across Europe to help fast track vaccination."
The RSPCA mounted a high-profile campaign, with the help of celebrity supporters, to stop the cull. Mr Grant rejects criticism that their stance was about "protecting cuddly badgers".
"We care just as much about cows as badgers. The RSPCA membership and support base was totally united. We are led by compassion, anchored in good science and good sense. Free shooting was bad news for badgers and in many ways may have made the situation for dairy farms outside the cull area worse. That is why we got MPs from all parts of England voting against."
The RSPCA wants "a vibrant healthy countryside with a healthy wildlife populations and farm populations".
Mr Grant wants MPs and peers to turn their attention to the "evil trade" of live animal export, another issue on which the RSPCA is campaigning vigorously.
Tory MP Laura Sandys is seeking an adjournment debate to draw attention to the thousands of live sheep being exported via Ramsgate, the only British port currently being used for shipping animals abroad for further fattening and slaughter.
"If meat needs to go to the Continent then it should be on the hook, not on the hoof," Mr Grant said.
"This appalling trade needs to cease immediately."