I don't like having a go at The North Devon Journal because on the whole I have had a pretty good relationship with them over the years. But this article cannot be let go without a comment. At the moment, especially in Devon and Somerset, Bovine Tuberculosis is one of those buzz words sure to cause a reaction, being the main rationale between this current government's ethnic cleansing of the badger population. So the immediate reaction many people will get from this headline is 'Poor curly-haired farmer driven into insolvency by those nasty disease-ridden mustelids.'
But that isn't what the story says at all.
Mr Pile's farm tested positive for bTB in March but 'even though the farm has gone clear after recent tests Jim has decided to wind down the cattle enterprise and concentrate on his prize-winning Border Leicester sheep'. He states that he doesn't know whether it has anything to do with badgers because he isn't a scientist and admits that he was already thinking about reducing the number of cattle he was keeping so he could concentrate on sheep.
Good luck to him.
But the way the story is presented gives a totally wrong impression.
Check out the original story
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