DEFRA-funded bat vivisection shock

Ross Baker and Lynn Whitfield give their views of this controversial proposal.

As many of you will know from recent e-mails, DEFRA has funded a project proposed by the Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA) which entails capturing 60 Daubenton’s bats from sites in the UK, sending them to a laboratory in Germany (the only suitable lab in Europe), infecting them with European Bat Lyssavirus type 2 (EBLV2), and then killing any that survive. The purpose of this experiment is described as “to inform DEFRA policy and recommendations in response to the possible presence, and risk of exposure to EBLV2 within the UK.”

Space does not permit a full exposition of the arguments against this experiment but, broadly, we believe the experiment to be unnecessary, as it is widely acknowledged that the risk to the public from EBLV2 is infinitesimally small. In addition, the protocols on which it is based appear to have serious scientific flaws, and the taking of bats for this purpose is, we believe, contrary to laws protecting bats throughout Europe. (We are happy to elaborate on these arguments if anyone requires further information.)

The Surrey Bat Group has hitherto worked closely with various government bodies to advance research in this area through the passive surveillance programme, under which dead bats are sent to the VLA for screening, and through the newer active surveillance programme in which we were able to provide scientists from the Central Science Laboratory in York with their only study site in the south of England. Given the unprecedented co-operation that batworkers have given to these programmes – remember that all four of the UK positives for EBLV2 were identified and supplied by batworkers – it is deeply disappointing that the VLA has found it necessary to promulgate this type of lethal research, which they must have realised would alienate many within bat conservation on whom they have previously relied so heavily.

Even more disappointing has been the behaviour of the Bat Conservation Trust in response to these proposals. The BCT was invited to attend a meeting to discuss the project with DEFRA in May. The following day there was a Bat Group Forum meeting – however, BCT chose not to share this most important news with the forum as they wanted time to formulate their policy. Sadly, they did not take the view that they should inform bat groups at the earliest possible opportunity so that their policy could be based on the broadest possible consensus view. Rather, they took their line from the trustees of BCT, the majority of whom came out in support of DEFRA. Furthermore, we are forced to conclude that there appears to have been a deliberate attempt from somewhere within BCT to suppress the whole story. Although the publication of Bat News was delayed to enable an article to be squeezed onto the back page, the text of that article was so vague that no-one we have spoken to realised that it was supposed to inform us that a line had been crossed and DEFRA was, for the first time, prepared to allow the killing of animals they have a legal responsibility for protecting.

You may be wondering what part English Nature has to play in all this? Although DEFRA can very easily grant itself a licence to take and kill bats, it has to get this approved by English Nature. EN has to be satisfied that the favourable conservation status of the species concerned will be maintained. So did they consult with experts in the field, like for instance Phil Richardson, who has spent over 25 years specialising in the study of Daubenton’s, orTomasz Kokurewicz, an acknowledged European expert on the species? No, they fast-tracked the licence through in four days, giving DEFRA permission to capture up to 120 bats, at any time until February 2007 (so much for not disturbing bats in hibernation), of which half were to be released at the site of capture within two weeks. Furthermore, instead of insisting that only small numbers of bats could be taken from each colony, they have allowed up to 25% of the females from any one colony to be taken! (We have obtained a copy of the licence from EN.)

So where do we go from here? We have written in a personal capacity to DEFRA, EN, BCT, Tony Blair, our MP, David Miliband (the Secretary of State for the Environment) and his Conservative and Lib Dem shadows, one of our European MEPs, and finally to Eurobats, the umbrella organisation for European bat conservation. We also sent out an email earlier this month to all members on our email list (100 out of 158 members in total), in an effort to gauge their opinions and to enable us to represent the group’s views accurately, and we will be lobbying BCT hard at the Bat Conference to change its stance on this. We know that many of you have already written letters of protest and we would encourage others to do likewise. If anyone would like copies of the letter we have written please let us know.

We will be discussing the matter further at our AGM in October, where – unless by some miracle there has been a policy change and the experiment abandoned – we would welcome members’ views on possible further courses of action. We urge you to attend and to make your views known.

Ross Baker and Lynn Whitfield

BCT has come in for considerable criticism as a result of its handling of this issue.

Click herefor BCT’s ownstatement.

DEFRA have also produced a detailed statement on the experiment.

Click here to view it.