Premium
Death on the farm: Culling badgers in North Pembrokeshire (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate )
Author(s) -
Caplan Pat
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
anthropology today
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.419
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1467-8322
pISSN - 0268-540X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8322.2010.00722.x
Subject(s) - welsh , culling , politics , wildlife , government (linguistics) , ethnic group , perception , ethnology , political science , geography , history , law , psychology , archaeology , ecology , biology , linguistics , philosophy , herd , neuroscience
The Welsh Assembly Government has recently announced its intention to cull all badgers from North Pembrokeshire on the grounds that they are vectors of bovine tuberculosis. This article considers some local reactions to this news, ranging from those who support the cull wholeheartedly to those who argue against it, and some of the reasons why people adopt different standpoints. The article considers a range of issues which help explain why people think as they do; these include perception of risk, ethnicity, ideas about animals and wildlife, the selective uses of both scientific literature and emotion, and finally some of the local and regional politics involved.