WHY SETT?          

1. SETT has been established as a single issue pressure group focussed on reversing the New Labour Government's decision to cease the culling of badgers in those areas of cattle herd breakdown from outbreaks of bovine tuberculosis.  The SETT founders believe that the Government exhibits a profound bias against the British Farmer and an equally profound bias for the supporters of the so-called Animal Welfare Lobby - indeed MAFF is now perceived by most Country Folk as a virtual Ministry of Food and Animal Welfare.

2. The irresponsible act of ceasing the culling of TB-infectious badgers immediately on gaining office May 1997 (and not on the day the Kreb's Report was published - as Junior Minister Jeff Rooker suggests) was the action of ill-informed politicians trying to repay a party's debt to IFAW - an act of total ignorance and pure countryside vandalism.

3. SETT is independent and is aware that both the New Labour Government and the Farming Establishment (including the NFU,  MAFF and even the Farmers Weekly) have their own agenda and for the sake of the Farming Community this situation needs challenging! - SETT will do this!

4. Since then - May 1999 - Bovine TB has spiralled exponentially out of control.  Even my newly-elected New Labour MP - who was espousing the New Labour line of developing a vaccine or a live test now agrees with the founders of SETT because of what she has witnessed first hand over this government's own TWO YEARS no-culling experiment.

5. SETT then has grown in the same way as Bovine TB has spread throughout Britain - starting in the South West of England and moving North East through to the Midlands and beyond.  The charts and graphs included in this web site tell the story and perhaps the most telling is the first one illustrating the Badger Control Strategies used since 1972 and how successful each has been.

6. If Professor John Krebs had correlated this information and presented it in this manner - then the only conclusion that could sensibly be reached would be the following one:-

   When badgers setts were gassed following cattle herd breakdown - the incidence of bovine TB thereafter was very much reduced and remained so for some 6 - 7 years - indeed the overall incidence of TB showed a decrease with this methodology whilst all other methods were significantly less effective and more expensive.

7. SETT then is working to re-introduce badger culling by the effective means of stopping-up and gassing badger setts as happened in 1972-1976 - it's the only way forward. Thereafter it will be necessary to maintain the badger population at levels that do not cause harm to cattle or rambling children!!