Domestic cows are contracting TB (tuberculosis). Responsibility for this has been attributed to the gentle badger, which carries the disease, and they are charged with the responsibility for passing it on to cattle.
- The cows that contract TB are slaughtered. This, it is said, is the best way to eradicate the disease!
- And farmers have been given permission to cull badgers in two areas of England, something that is already happening in several other parts of Europe.
Will this lethal medical strategy work? This is currently the subject of a lively political debate.
Farmers, who insist on feeding cows on grain rather than grass, keeping them confined indoors rather than in fields, and milking them to sheer exhaustion in the interests of productivity, think it will.
Those opposing the cull believe that the evidence, including the science, does not support the cull as an effective stratetgy. They claim that vaccination is the way forward. This position might, at best, be considered a triumph of hope over experience, given the damage conventional vaccines have had on us. I have visions of inattentive, wandering cows with Autism; and their young calves dying of 'sudden calf-death-syndrome'.
The government supports the cull, as usual supporting the views of the largest vested-interest involved in the debate. Scientists say the evidence suggests that culling will not work. And so all is confusion!
So please excuse me if I deviate somewhat from the political argument, and introduce a new topic to the general discussion on badger culling.
What sort of medical system advocates a policy of killing rather than a policy of treatment when an animal contracts a disease?
The answer is a failing system, and system of medicine that whilst claiming great competence, delivers little in the way of effective treatment of serious (and less serious) diseases. Conventional medical practice has a history of doing so. The most notable, perhaps, was the Foot and Mouth epidemic of 2001, during which conventional medicine slaughtered millions of cows - as a treatment!
Now they acquiesce to the slaughter of badgers - because they have nothing else to offer. The conventional medical establishment tells us, so regularly and frequently, that ‘nothing else can be done’. Although what this actually means is that conventional medicine can do nothing more, for any other medical therapy to suggest that it can leads to them being lampooned, attacked, ridiculed and threatened by the ConMed Establishment, and even by the law, for doing so.
Not even humans are safe from butchery. Faced with the possibility of breast cancer, some women are now choosing to have their breasts removed, rather than face the prospect of relying on conventional medical treatment, in which many women, quite clearly, now have little confidence. And perhaps it is with some justification that, faced with a terminal illness, many people are now seeking legalisation to allow voluntary, or assisted euthanasia.
So let’s invite some lampooning from the supporters of Big Pharma drugs and vaccines!
How exactly would a Homeopath, or an Alternative Therapist, approach the problem of TB (tuberculosis) in badgers. I see a classic homeopathic consultation, that starts from lifestyle factors, and moves on to treatment!
Alternative Therapist (AT). Are you eating a good, healthy, species-friendly diet?
Cow. No, I am being fed on corn, and I have little opportunity to eat grass
AT. Do you get adequate exercise?
Cow. No, I am kept in a confined space, and not allowed to wander far.
AT. Are you living in a healthy, natural environment?
Cow. No, I rarely if ever see a field. I have to live with many other cows. We are usually indoors now, but this is not a natural environment for us cattle.
AT. Are you under stress? Are you able to relax?
Cow. No. I am expected to provide ever increasing amounts of milk, and I am kept constantly in this state.
AT. Are you getting plenty of Vitamin D (several studies have shown that this is a preventative measure for TB).
Cow. No, it has never been suggested to me. I thought the best source of Vitamin D is sunshine, and I rarely see the sun now, of course.
AT. Has Homeopathic treatment, or any other treatment, ever been mentioned?
Cow. No.
AT. Have you ever been given any Homeopathic remedies, like Phosphorus been given to you?
Cow. Not to my knowledge, the farmer and his vet do not believe in such things, but he is always complaining about badgers.
So it's a precarious life being a cow, living increasingly unnatural lives, and relying as they do on conventional medical treatment. If they get ill, because of the life-style they are expected to endure, they are slaughtered!
And it is a precarious life for badgers too. Whether they carry TB or not, and whether they are troubled by it or not, they are accused of passing the disease to cows, and as a consequence, run the risk of being shot.
But then, as we see so often on this blog, it is a precarious life being a human, contracting diseases that are often caused by conventional medical treatment, and treated by drugs and vaccines that are usually ineffective and dangerous to our future health. There is nothing we can do, we are told. Just keep taking the medicine.
Indeed, it’s a badgers life!
