Animals causing mischief (From Western Telegraph)

Animals causing mischief

10:18am Wednesday 7th December 2011 in Letters

In Sir Eric Howells' latest rather disjointed letter to the Western Telegraph [Nov. 23] he accuses badgers of causing hundreds of pounds worth of damage to cars which hit them on the roads; presumably using this fact as another reason to have them culled. Odd that in a previous letter he claimed that dead badgers seen on the roads had died of TB not by having been run over.

I don't confess to knowing anything about the subject but I do find it sad that Sir Eric and many others like him around the world would wipe out any animal, great or small, which is causing them problems. This is probably understandable in poor countries where many animals such as the big cats and great apes will soon be extinct in the wild but surely a comparatively rich country such as ours can find a better way of dealing with any mischief our own wildlife may be suspected of causing than simply exterminating the lot.

Peter Hyde Steynton.