Badger removal to be cut to less than 1,000 a year
It is anticipated that badger removal will reduce from the current 6,000 badgers per year to less than 1,000 in four or five years’ time, said Agriculture Minister Michael Creed in the Dáil last week.
This is due to a badger vaccination policy being expanded to all parts of the country, over three years.
The vaccination programme started last January in parts of Monaghan, Longford, Galway, Tipperary, Waterford, Kilkenny, Cork, and in all of Co Louth. Badgers in a vaccination area are captured and vaccinated and released, instead of being captured and culled.
The Minister was responding to a Dáil question from Dublin Central Independent TD Maureen O’Sullivan.
