Sir David Attenborough, the king of wildlife documentaries has shown his support for the badger cull campaign by appearing in a new single produced to raise funds for the Badger Trust. The song aptly named 'The present of life' has been produced by eco-friendly clothing firm Rapanui and is being launched by Spring Watch presenter, Chris Packham. The video also features Packham on drums, weather forecaster Michael Fish on guitar and Rob da-Bank, the radio 1 DJ.
The single will be available from the iTunes store from December 7 to raise money for the Badger Trust and the ongoing badger cull campaign.You can also preview it here...
Packham told the Telegraph: 'The battle for the coveted Christmas number one spot is always tough but one we are ready for. It will be difficult going up against the X-Factor but we'll give it a good shot. It would be an amazing achievement.'
Sir David, 86, has voiced his concerns about the proposed badger cull on several occasions and believes the cull could aggravate the TB situation and make matters worse. The planned cull was agreed as a measure of controlling bovine tuberculosis. Despite the weak amount of evidence it is still believed by some that badgers are the primary transmitter of the disease to cattle.
But in an interview last year, Sir David said:
'You may think culling [badgers] is the answer and it sounds easy to start with but it can very well make things much worse.'
'At the moment TB is localised. If you kill all those badgers what happens then? Firstly those survivors will go out and carry the disease to areas that were hitherto unaffected.'
'Other badgers slowly colonize and are infected themselves. There is good scientific research available to show culling badgers can make things worse not better.'
The cull has now been postponed until next year. In the mean time the Government have promised to enforce other measure to help control the disease, such as improving bio and farm security and helping to push through the new cattle vaccine so it can be used freely within the EU.
There is much evidence to suggest that as much as 80% of TB is transferred from cattle to cattle. Yet we hear stories of cows that have tested positive within the UK but wait weeks before being euthanized, in that time infection can spread particularly in an intensive farming environment. Our bio security standards are much lower than some of our European cousins and so it therefore makes much more sense to scrutinize these areas first.
In the meantime please show your support by downloading 'The present of life' and spread the word!