September 9th 2018 Badger cull expands despite cruelty claims
by Shingi Mararike and Jonathan Leake for the Sunday Times
The badger cull is set to be widened in what environmental activists are calling the “biggest destruction of a protected species in living memory”.
Ten more licences could be granted by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to bring the number of locations in which badgers can legally be killed in England up to 31. The aim is to limit the spread of tuberculosis in cattle.
Trapping and shooting could now be approved in Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Staffordshire.
Dominic Dyer, chief executive of the Badger Trust, said: “If the government really wishes to reduce the spread of tuberculosis in badgers, it should bring an immediate halt to the cruel, ineffective and hugely costly badger cull and introduce a publicly funded national vaccination
Trapping and shooting could now be approved in Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Staffordshire.
Dominic Dyer, chief executive of the Badger Trust, said: “If the government really wishes to reduce the spread of tuberculosis in badgers, it should bring an immediate halt to the cruel, ineffective and hugely costly badger cull and introduce a publicly funded national vaccination programme.”
Defra said bovine TB “is difficult to detect, can be harboured in the wildlife population and no vaccine is fully effective”
