The Badger Trust has been granted permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal against the High Court’s ruling that trial badger culls have been planned lawfully after the trust’s initial legal challenge ended in failure last month. The proposed English badger cull forms part of Defra’s bovine TB eradication policy, though the cull is a highly contentious issue.

Lord Justice Laws granted permission to appeal on the Trust’s claim that the Secretary of State had unlawfully used the licensing powers in section 10(2)a of the Protection of Badgers Act 1992. This allows killing badgers (normally a criminal offence) for the purposes of preventing the spread of disease, though the Trust contests this.

The Trust had claimed that Defra’s cull proposals were improperly costed, that Natural England is not an appropriate cull licensing body and that the cull itself is illegal on the grounds that it is an improper use of the Protection of Badgers act. Although Lord Justice Laws rejected the first two claims, he upheld the third, stating “the point is arguable and the issue important.”

The appeal is likely to be listed in the court vacation and should be heard before the end of September. The Judge agreed to expedite the hearing following a request from Defra; the government ministry fears the renewed legal challenge could disrupt pilot culls set to go ahead in the autumn.

Although Defra has expressed the intention to press ahead with culling, other British governments have opted to undertake programmes of vaccination and introduce stricter cattle measures including testing and movement restrictions.

David Williams, the Trust’s chair, today commented, “It is vital for the law to be clarified when it concerns the wholesale slaughter of a wildlife species in what we see as a vain attempt to prevent the spread of disease. At the judicial review hearing in June, it was accepted that culling would spread the disease and, only after nine years, produce a marginal slowdown in the rate of new TB incidence; 12-16 per cent is the best case scenario but only if the RBCT methodology were to be followed precisely. [In this case] it would not be”.

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