Veterinary Medicine kills Badgers as a Treatment for Bovine TB. How sensible is this?

How effective is veterinary medicine? Well, consider this; Badgers are being culled in order to reduce the incidence of Bovine TB.

So clearly veterinary medicine believes the mass slaughter of Badgers is an effective medical treatment for cows with tuberculosis.

Care 2 Petitions have a petition "The UK just declared open season on tens of thousands of badgers after it promised to stop the killing". Whether you wish to sign it, or not, depends on how sensible/rational you think this 'medical' response is the the problem of bovine TB. This is their message.

               "Culling, or the mass slaughter, of badgers has been practised in the UK for a bloody 7 years. The government says it's the only way to stop the spread of bovine-TB, for which badgers are vectors. But the government is lying. A ten year long study prior to the cull's beginning concluded that "badger culling can make no meaningful contribution to cattle TB control in Britain." Since the beginning of the cull, the number of cows per year that contracted bovine TB rose by nearly 8,000.

The bloody badger cull is as ineffective as it is inhumane, thus the government vowed to phase the practice out in favor of vaccinations as well as improving farm biosecurity. 

               "But now, in a horrifying U-turn, the government is doubling down on its previous murder crusade: they just announced that 11 more areas of the UK will be included in the badger cull, adding another 60,000 badger lives to the kill list. 60,000 more badgers that can now be gunned down, left to bleed out for minutes or even hours of suffering. This is senseless cruelty.

Alarming. yet this is a simplistic view of the government's culling policy which fails to recognise the reason for the policy, namely the failure of conventional veterinary medicine. In other words, the root of the problem is that vets have not effective treatment for bovine TB. This creates the problem. 

• Government pay out £millions every year to compensate farmers for the loss of their cows. They quite understandably want to reduce this outlay.
• Farmers are devastated by the loss of their herds, they seek medical help - but there is no veterinary help available. Instead, they have to make do with government compensation.
• The veterinary profession then feels under pressure. They have two alternatives - to admit they have no treatment (which is embarrassing, and undermines their competence) - or come up with desperate and crazy measures to cover up their failure be seen as doing 'something'.

In other words both farmers and government are relying on the advice of a grossly incompetent and failing medical system. Similarly, the crazy and desperate measures that have been put in place for 'treating' the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic have the same roots - and incompetent medical system that (on its own admission) has no available treatment.

So alternative, natural strategies are not considered. Industrial farming practices, in which cows are kept indoors, artificially inseminated, kept in a permanent state of pregnancy / lactation, and then fed on food they do not normally eat, might be seen as a cause of the problem. Yet this is rarely discussed, and if it is it is usually ridiculed and dismissed out-of-hand. In much the same way, conventional medicine has rejected the natural immune system, supporting and strengthening it, as a more effective alternative to washing hands, social distance, lockdown, destroying jobs and social relationships, undermining education, the justice system, and the economy generally.

So alternative, natural strategies are not being considered. So the nonsense endures. It is badgers that cause the problem, and they pay the price. Animal husbandry has nothing to offer in terms of an explanation for the problem, or suggesting more effective alternative treatment.

Homeopathy is also rejected, both by government and veterinary medicine, despite having had success for many years in the treatment of tuberculosis. However, there are an increasing number of farmers, perhaps those who understand that both government and veterinary medicine is incompetent, are moving to homeopathy. Many more farmers should consider doing the same. 

The organisation 'Homeopathy at Wellie Level' has been organising and running homeopathy courses for farmers and smallholders for many years. Homeopathy provides a rational and sensible way of dealing with all the livestock illness currently experienced on the farm. And homeopathy is safer, more effective, and cheaper than conventional veterinary medicine.

Shambo the bull is dead. What kind of medicine is it that has to kill its patients? Will the incompetence of conventional medicine lead ultimately to euthanasia?

Do you remember Shambo the bull? He belonged to the Hindu monks of the Skanda Vale temple in Carmarthenshire, West Wales. They considered the 6 year old Friesian bullock to be sacred but in 2007 it tested 'positive' for TB. For Shambo that was a death sentence, but the monks fought the decision, saying that they would guard against Shambo infecting other animals by keeping him in a separate pen.

This was not good enough for conventional veterinary practice, for Welch politicians, for local farmers who saw Shambo as a disease risk to their livestock, and ultimately for the legal system, which after initially reprieving him eventually ruled that he had to be killed.

I remember the whole affair well because it brought home to me the utter uselessness and incompetence of conventional veterinary practice, which had no effective treatment for many diseases, ultimately leading to the 'need' to kill the patient.

I recalled the British Foot and Mouth epidemic of 2001, during which over 6 million cows and sheep were killed. This had to be done, we were told, to stop the spread of the disease. It brought havoc to many parts of the country, closing public rights of way, and causing long-term harm to the tourist industry throughout England, but especially the Lake District.

I recalled the panic of the 1980's, which culminated in the 1990's, over 'mad cow' disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Again, the veterinary response was to cull the sick animals.

BSE itself was closely associated with Scrapie, a fatal degenerative disease that has been affecting sheep and goats for over 200 years.

Yet, for all these diseases, vets have developed no effective treatments - other than killing the patient. What kind of medicine is this? A medicine whose only course of action is culling thousands of animals?

It is a good job, perhaps, that conventional medicine do not have the same strategy for sick human patients! Yet, I do wonder, if this statement is more wishful thinking that a reality.

Conventional medical spokesperson can often be heard saying that there is 'no treatment' for this illness, or that disease. I started writing my "Why Homeopathy?" website several years ago now, in which I compare conventional and homeopathic treatments for specific diseases. I usually use the NHS Choices website for a description of conventional medical treatment and I have been amazed at how often it is admitted that there is 'no treatment' for a condition.

Part of this amazement is that many of these conditions are regularly treated with homeopathy, with considerable success, many for over 220 years.

When conventional medicine states that 'there is no treatment' for a disease what is meant is that there is no effective CONVENTIONAL medical treatment. For instance, this was the situation when I wrote the 'Why Homeopathy?'page on TB. Simply put, whilst there are many effective homeopathic remedies, used successfully for 200 years and more (Phosphorus, Calc Carb, Silicia, and the use of nosodes like Tuberculinum and Bacillinum) conventional medicine has only antibiotic drugs.

"Treatment for tuberculosis (TB) usually involves taking antibiotics for several months."

Yet, as we know, antibiotic drugs are coming to the end of their useful life, so soon the NHS Choices website will have to make their usual admission - there is no effective treatment for TB!

So what is the conventional medical response to patients who suffer from diseases for which there is no treatment or cure? In essence there are only four options.

1. Amelioration is offered, such as painkillers for dealing with pain. 
2. Or there are operations available - to remove or replace organs and limbs. 
3. Or there is palliative, or end of life care.
4. And in addition there is an increasing discussion of euthanasia.

Never does conventional medicine suggest that there may be other medical therapies that can offer more effective treatment for a sick, or even a dying patient. It seems that our doctors will do anything other than suggest that there are other, potentially effective treatment to their patients. They prefer that we remain sick, or in pain, or die, rather than admit that although they cannot help, other medical practitioners might be able to do so.

So what does conventional medicine do? What can they offer to their human patients? They can certainly offer more than Shambo got - amelioration, surgery, and palliative care. But the only other choice sick and incurable patients have is euthanasia. This remains controversial, but more people are opting for it (usually based on the understanding that there is no effective treatment for their illness, and there is more discussion about legalising it, and some countries have already done so.

Conventional medicine is dominant. If wants to become a monopoly. It attacks homeopathy and other medical therapies regularly and gratuitously. Yet conventional medicine is inept. What other word is there for a medical therapy that needs to, or allows, their patients to die?

Veterinary medicine and Avian Flu. What good is it if it has to kill the patients? Mass slaughter is not medicine!

For many chicken farmers and free range egg producers, the current outbreak of Avian Flu has been, or might become, a financial disaster. For many chickens it has already been a living disaster, with the threat of slaughter hanging over every flock in Britain.

I wrote about this situation in December 2016, "Avian flu, a new epidemic. What can conventional medicine do?" when the current outbreak occurred. In this blog I described the despair and hopelessness of the conventional medical approach to the situation. Today, two months later the situation continues for those farmers in what are considered to be 'at risk' areas, with the prospect of their 'free-range' eggs no longer being saleable as such.

As I outlined in this blog, homeopathy has simple and inexpensive answers to avian flu. Yet the government's veterinary service has not taken it up, it has not even looked at it. It is conventional drug-based medicine, or nothing!

My amazement at the situation continues. Flu? A terrible disease necessitating keeping flocks indoors, and slaughtering them all if a single bird contracts it. Even killing the single bird is unnecessary! The mass slaughter of entire flocks? Unforgivable.

Recently, I heard a BBC radio programme discussing the situation. Someone said they were looking for strains of chicken that would prove to be more resistant to flu.

Good idea? Perhaps it is, if veterinary medicine really thinks that avian flu is a serious condition. But just how are they setting about this task?

Let's take another similar situation, involving trees. I have written about "Ash Die-Back. Can Homeopathy Help?" back in November 2012. The disease initially stunts the trees, and to stop the spread, felling is the favoured option. Yet even in this situation, tree's that remain free of die-back are not felled. They are the trees that are more resistant. They have more natural immunity to the disease so they are left, hopefully to generate the next generations of Ash trees.

So what happens to bird flocks? They are ALL culled. If one contracts flu, everyone is slaughtered - the most susceptible alongside the immune, the very birds who would be able to produce the next generation of flu-free birds! It is truly a crazy medical system. A failing medical system.

Remember that veterinary medicine kills badgers because it has no answer to TB in cattle. "Killing Badgers and TB". And veterninary medicine does the same when cattle go down with 'Foot and Mouth'.

All this is based on a medical system that does not have any answers to even the simplest of animal diseases.