Licensing body Natural England has approved an application to extend the deeply controversial badger cull to Dorset.

image expired

• A consultation on introducing compulsory testing for all cattle entering low-risk areas, such as the north and east of England, to reduce the risk of new TB cases in these regions.
• A consultation on changes to the criteria for future badger control licences such as reducing the minimum area for a licence – an approach based on the latest scientific evidence and supported by the Chief Vet.
• A call for views on controlling TB in non-bovine animals such as pigs, goats, and deer.

On Friday, the NFU welcomed news of an extension and demanded a further roll-out of culling. President Meurig Raymond said, “We expect [government] commitment to tackle this disease to be backed up with further roll out of culling to other areas where bTB is endemic next year and in the coming years. We will continue to press for that as a matter of urgency.”

However, Dominic Dyer, CEO of the Badger Trust, which mounted legal challenges against the controversial cull in past years, said, “These culls were sold to the public as an experiment to see if free-shooting badgers was humane and effective and on both counts they have comprehensively failed.”

Dyer pointed out that both the government-appointed Independent Expert Panel (IEP) in 2012 and now the British Veterinary Association (BVA) have condemned the free shooting method of culling as ‘inhumane' and that, with two years of culling gone, shooters failed to reach their targets in either cull in Gloucestershire and in the first year in Somerset. Last year, the Somerset cull company managed to reach a much reduced target figure. The Trust claims that the Welsh government’s approach to bTB, based on cattle-controls and badger vaccination, has been more successful.

Prominent naturalists and broadcasters Chris Packham and Steve Backshall released a joint statement in response to Friday’s announcement. The pair said, “Ignoring science… to keep certain lobbies happy, is a terrible idea. There are plenty of reasons to oppose the culling of badgers but underpinning them all is the fact that the science says, indeed all the scientists say, that it's the wrong thing to do.”

Earlier in the week, anti-cull campaigner and former Queen guitarist Brian May threatened legal action if culling resumes in 2015.