Call off the cull plea

The Tories plan to cull another 50,000 badgers in an effort they claim will reduce the number of cases of bovine TB in cattle.

But animal rights campaigners say evidence that culling badgers reduces levels of bovine TB is lacking.

“There is no evidence that badger culls since 2013 have reduced the level of bovine TB in cattle,” said Dominic Dyer, chief executive of the Badger Trust.

In the past three years 3,961 badgers have been killed in Somerset, Gloucestershire and Dorset.

Ministers plan to extend culling across nine further counties, which is estimated to result in ten times that amount being killed.

Last week Liz Truss, the environment secretary, told the National Farmers Union conference, “I want to see culling expanded across a wider number of areas this year.”

Badgers are shot or trapped in cages and then shot at close range. Animal rights campaigners say that some badgers culled in the pilot took more than five minutes to die after being shot.

Disappointing

“It is disappointing to hear Liz Truss reaffirm the government’s intention to extend the badger cull to many more parts of England this year, despite Defra’s own experts finding that previous pilots were ‘ineffective and failed the humaneness test,” said Kerry McCarthy, shadow environment secretary.

A trial from 1998 to 2007 showed that at the beginning of the cull TB rates could increase because diseased badgers would be displaced and roam more widely spreading the infection to other badger setts.

“The secretary of state has not provided evidence of a reduction in bovine TB in badger culling areas. In fact she has refused to publish a cost benefits analysis or carry out any post-mortem testing of badgers for TB,” added Kerry.

So far none of the badgers culled have even been tested to see if they were carrying bovine TB, partly because doing so could apparently cost a few hundred pounds per animal.

High costs

“Given the scientific evidence against culling and the very high costs of the culls – estimated at up to £7,000 per dead badger – the secretary of state should drop her stubbornness and call off the extension while a proper review is undertaken of the benefit of badger culls in tackling bovine TB,” said Kerry.

The Badger Trust says that expanding the culls would cost the taxpayer about ÂŁ100m over the next five years. While farmers pay contractors who carry out the killings it is the public who pay for costs including policing, monitoring and the cages for trapping.

“We would like to see the money wasted on badger culling spent on better TB testing systems for cattle and better fences and gates to reduce the risk of badgers getting into farmyards,” added Dominic Dyer.

Take action

You can email environment secretary Liz Truss and ask her to call off the cull.