Monday, October 20, 2014

ANIMAL WELFARE: Badger cull set to fail for second year running




Anti-cull campaigners out in Gloucestershire.
A leading badger expert said that the targets set for the latest culls in Gloucestershire and Somerset were scientifically ‘rubbish’ Photograph: Will Oliver/AFP/Getty Images
The controversial badger cull in England is set to fail for the second year running, with shooters far behind the required number of kills, according to Guardian sources. The six-week culls are due to end on Monday and environment secretary, Liz Truss, says the outcome will determine whether they are rolled out across the country in an attempt to curb rising tuberculosis in cattle. Over 26,000 TB-infected cattle were slaughtered in 2013.

But ministers have abolished independent expert analysis of the culls, a move being challenged by an ongoing legal battle. A leading badger expert said on Friday that the targets set for the latest culls were scientifically “rubbish”, meaning no conclusion would be able to be drawn from them. The most recent data obtained by the Guardian shows that, two-thirds of the way through the Gloucestershire cull, fewer than a third of the required badgers had been shot. A landmark 10-year trial showed that killing too few badgers actually increases TB in cattle as the disturbed badgers scatter.

In the other cull zone in Somerset, the Guardian understands the shooters are on track to meet the target set by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). But Professor Rosie Woodroffe, a badger expert who worked on the 10-year trial, said: “The targets are all rubbish because they are based on rubbish data. In Somerset they set themselves an unbelievably easy target. It was not set in line with their aim – to kill at least 70% of badgers. They have completely thrown that out.”

Officials estimated the Somerset population by counting setts and multiplying by a fixed number, a method described as “very crude” by Prof Woodroffe. This estimate suggested the target should be between 316 and 1,776 badgers killed, with Defra choosing the lowest figure.

There is a 97.5% chance the cull will therefore fall short of the 70% mark, according to Prof Woodroffe. In Gloucestershire, the range was estimated as 391 to 1,292, with 615 being chosen as the target.
“Defra claim to take a precautionary approach to setting these targets. But killing too few badgers risks increasing cattle TB, quite the opposite of precautionary,” she said. “Furthermore, with the data that is being collected, it will be impossible to know how effective this year’s culls have been.”

Defra’s now-disbanded Independent Expert Panel (IEP) judged the 2013 culls to be neither effective or humane. “I wonder if the government no longer wants to know the answer to whether their ongoing pilot culls will deliver the required outcome,” said IEP member, Prof Tim Coulson at the University of Oxford, in June.

Read on... 

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN HOOTS AND HOLLERS

The Gonzo Daily - Monday
www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/about.html
 
And so another week lies before us. Graham is back from St Albans, Julia/Jules/Jools the Psychic is asleep in the sitting room, and - much to my great pleasure - the winds of the weekend have not dislodged any of the slates from the roof. Although not as outstanding a year as 2013, this has been a good year for moths and butterflies, and an interesting flurry of autumn migrants are still arriving. Five specimens of Palpita vitrealis, a species found worldwide but only in southern Europe turned up in Kent a few nights ago, and even more excitinglu a crimson speckled was found in Norfok and the massively beautiful oleander hawk moth in Dorset over the past few nights. Both species are massively rare and extremely beautiful. If you do not know them check out these links:
 
 
Forgive me for sharing my obsession with such things, but butterflies and moths, especially the rare vagrants, have been one of my obsessions for years, and I have a sneaking sus[icion that it is a good thing to share one's obsessions.
 
 
 
Jon Anderson, Matt Malley, Yes, Hawkwind, Genesis and Tommy James & The Shondells fans had better look out! The latest issue of Gonzo Weekly (#100) is available to read at www.gonzoweekly.com, and to download at http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/.
 
It has Jon Anderson on the cover, and features an interview with Matt Malley about his collaboration with Jon Anserson on a charity single released today. But there's more! Doug Harr rewrites the screenplay for the controversial new Genesis documentary, we send the editor to a Desert Island, Davey Curtis was at Hawkeaster and was just about sober enough to write some of it down (but took loads of pics), and Jon asks whether music has to be age appropriate. We also learn about Tommy James and the Mafia. There are also new shows from the multi-talented Neil Nixon at Strange Fruit and from M Destiny at Friday Night Progressive, and the massively talented Jaki and Tim are back with their submarine and Maisie the cow. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and doves making coos (OK, no musical members of the Columbinidae, but I got carried away with things that rhymed with OOOOS) than you can shake a stick at. And the best part is IT's ABSOLUTELY FREE!!! And yes, Happy Birthday to us!
 
Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
 
 

All issues from #70 can be downloaded at www.gonzoweekly.com if you prefer. If you have problems downloading, just email me and I will add you to the Gonzo Weekly dropbox. The first 69 issues are archived there as well. Information is power chaps, we have to share it!
 
You can download the magazine in pdf form HERE:
http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/
 

*  The Gonzo Daily is a two way process. If you have any news or want to write for us, please contact me at  jon@eclipse.co.uk. If you are an artist and want to showcase your work, or even just say hello please write to me at gonzo@cfz.org.uk. Please copy, paste and spread the word about this magazine as widely as possible. We need people to read us in order to grow, and as soon as it is viable we shall be invading more traditional magaziney areas. Join in the fun, spread the word, and maybe if we all chant loud enough we CAN stop it raining. See you tomorrow...

*  The Gonzo Daily is - as the name implies - a daily online magazine (mostly) about artists connected to the Gonzo Multimedia group of companies. But it also has other stuff as and when the editor feels like it. The same team also do a weekly newsletter called - imaginatively - The Gonzo Weekly. Find out about it at this link: www.gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/11/all-gonzo-news-wots-fit-to-print.html
 

* We should probably mention here, that some of our posts are links to things we have found on the internet that we think are of interest. We are not responsible for spelling or factual errors in other people's websites. Honest guv!

*  Jon Downes, the Editor of all these ventures (and several others) is an old hippy of 55 who - together with an infantile orange cat named after a song by Frank Zappa puts it all together from a converted potato shed in a tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon which he shares with various fish, and sometimes a small Indian frog. He is ably assisted by his lovely wife Corinna, his bulldog/boxer Prudence, his elderly mother-in-law, and a motley collection of social malcontents. Plus.. did we mention the infantile orange cat?

FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES

What has Corinna's column of fortean bird news got to do with Cryptozoology?

Well, everything actually!


In an article for the first edition of Cryptozoology Bernard Heuvelmans wrote that cryptozoology is the study of 'unexpected animals' and following on from that perfectly reasonable assertion, it seems to us that whereas the study of out-of-place birds may not have the glamour of the hunt for bigfoot or lake monsters, it is still a perfectly valid area for the Fortean zoologist to be interested in.




NESSIENEWS (Caveat Lector)



Nessie talk for festival of paranormal
A PARANORMAL investigator who claims to have captured the first infrared image of the Loch Ness Monster will lead a talk on the mythical creature at ...

Paranormal investigator to revisit Nessie hunt
He will be explaining his theories on the legendary monster during a ... “Maybe the monster will put in a special appearance at Loch Ness to mark this ...

TODAY'S BIG CAT NEWS

The hunt for British Big Cats attracts far more newspaper-column inches than any other cryptozoological subject. 

There are so many of them now that we feel that they should be archived by us in some way, so we are publishing a regular round-up of the stories as they come in. 

The worldwide mystery cat phenomenon (or group of phenomena, if we are to be more accurate) is not JUST about cryptozoology. At its most basic level it is about the relationship between our species and various species of larger cat. That is why sometimes you will read stories here that appear to have nothing to do with cryptozoology but have everything to do with human/big cat interaction. As committed Forteans, we believe that until we understand the nature of these interactions, we have no hope of understanding the truth that we are seeking.

  • NEWSLINK: Indian lions losing their bite
  • US SIGHTINGS: Mountain lion sighted just north of...
  • NEWSLINK: Endangered snow leopards are coming to t...

  • UK SIGHTINGS: The Beast of Tamworth: New picture ...
  • BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF



    Do you see a Bigfoot in this photograph?
    Bigfoot Evidence. World's Only 24/7 Bigfoot News Blog: Encouraging readers to draw their own conclusions from the evidence ... The face of Bigfoot

    Show details
    The Gulf Coast Bigfoot Research Organization responds to a call that a rogue Bigfoot is attacking a woman's farm animals; a hunter claims his foot was ...

    Bigfoot Round-Up Brings Sasquatch Skeptics to Washington
    In honor of Bigfoot believers Bob Gimlin and the late Roger Patterson, an event is being held at the Yakima Valley Museum in Yakima, Washington

    Bigfoot News October 19, 2014
    About whether or not Rick shot a Bigfoot, whether he shot at it and missed, whether he shot at it, hit it and wounded it, whether he shot it and killed it, ...

    Hunter Gets Terrified by Bigfoot in this Hotspot
    All this guy comes up with are stories of a Bigfoot driving some redneck out of the back country. No wonder both his and his wife's sphincter muscles ...

    Dr. Jeff Meldrum Speaking at the Yakima Bigfoot Round-Up (Video)
    Dr. Jeff Meldrum is a pillar of the Bigfoot community. The man has worked tirelessly on studying tracks and Bigfoot as a whole. Jeff was one of the key 

    Sunday at the Yakima Bigfoot Round-Up with John Mionczynski
    Yakima Bigfoot Round-Up Day 2, Featuring Lenny Green and Dr. John Bindernagel · Bob Gimlin Friday night at the Yakima Bigfoot Round-Up 2014 ...

    Are All These Monster Hunting Shows Helping or Hurting Cryptozoology?
    Whether it's Finding Bigfoot, Alaska Monsters, or Monsters Underground, television networks have realized there's money to be made in the search for ...

    Courier Mail
    New 'sightings' in Queensland of the mythical Yowie have sparked a spat between rival hunters
    Brisbane mates Jason Heal and Jason Dunn claim to have captured clear footage of a bigfoot in a forest on the Gold Coast hinterland. Where Yowie ...

    Dr. John Bindernagel Just Gave An Awesome Presentation at The Yakima Bigfoot Round-Up
    Dr. John Bindernagel is a wildlife biologist with a PhD who has become a world-renowned expert on the elusive Sasquatch. He has more than 40 ...

    Look Into the Eye of the Siberian Bigfoot (Video)
    The Siberian Sasquatch is still being heavily debated. YouTube user Syndactylus7 shows us a closer look at what might be the eye and face of the 

    Bigfoot Caught Filmed By Snowboarder Breakdown (Video)
    Is it a bear? Is it a tree? Is it a guy talking to a man about a horse? We don't know what it is, but let's find out what ParaBreakdown says as he gives us ...

    Monster hunting shows about nothing
    That's what I think about the assorted Bigfoot and monster hunting shows, which are fairly commonplace on assorted channels otherwise dedicated to 

    The Ozarks Must Be Packed with Bigfoot!
    The Ozarks Must Be Packed with Bigfoot! We see reports from this part of the U.S. all the time, and just recently we ran across one from this same 

    Bigfoot sighted chasing cars in Aberdeen
    A reported Sasquatch sighting last night in Aberdeen turned out to be someone in a costume jumping out of bushes on Basich Boulevard behind 

    Bigfoot in Ohio?
    The person who filmed this footage thinks it's a Bigfoot. He says if it's a costume, it's a damn good costume. Well. To be honest, it's just a blur to us