Dalliances, leaks and poor communication has seen Defra in the midst of storm worthy of satirical TV series The Thick of It. There is growing speculation that controversial plans to mount a badger cull in areas of Gloucestershire and Somerset may be delayed.

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Defra today allowed itself to become the centre of rumours that the badger cull could be delayed until next year in England. Plans to kill badgers in two ‘trial areas’ form the most prominent part of Defra’s bovine TB Eradication Strategy.

Ministers maintain that bovine TB has never been brought under control without addressing the wildlife reservoir and predict the cull will reduce levels of bovine TB by 16 percent. However, a large number of animals in the UK are susceptible to bTB, including domestic cats, deer, some rodents and pigs.

Cull opponents believe that the 16 percent figure is inaccurate, as Defra’s chosen methodology has never before been trialled, and that the death of nearly 10,000 badgers is too great a price to pay for so small a reduction in disease breakdowns. Police estimates have also shown that the policing operation for the cull is likely to cost over half of the entire budget.      

Two badgers culls are primed to go ahead in the South West of England any time between now and the beginning of December.

U-turn speculation

However, the scale of public protest against the culls, which has built up in a manner reminiscent of the current government’s first and most famous u-turn on plans to sell of swathes of the national forest, has led to speculation that a similar announcement could be imminent. Just one day after the government’s ‘ask Defra anything’ Twitter Q&A saw chief vet Nigel Gibbens and chief scientist Ian Boyd overwhelmed by questions on different aspects of the cull,  ITV’s political correspondent Alex Forrest drew attention to mixed messages emanating from Defra.

Forrest alleged early on Thursday (18th October) that a government source had indicated the cull was to be postponed until next year; she said, “The Department for the Environment had an announcement to make this lunchtime. But now I'm told there's nothing to say. I was due to interview the Environment Secretary Owen Paterson this morning. That got cancelled. Then it was re-instated for 12:45. But that has now been cancelled too.”

Although Defra commented on Thursday, "There is no change to the badger cull policy. We want the cull to happen as soon as possible," there has been speculation that the number of badgers in the two cull areas had been seriously underestimated, which could potentially double the cost of culling in Gloucestershire, as markspeople carrying out the culling must kill 70 per cent of badgers in a cull area for the measure to have the desired effect.

Cull opponents have called on Defra to postpone action until after a debate on the issue has been held in parliament. However, Defra today effectively admitted that the upcoming parliamentary debate, which was secured after a government e-petition reached the required 100,000 signatures in a matter of days, would not affect Defra ministers’ plans to press ahead with culling.

Experts including the researchers who conducted the formative Randomised Badger Culling Trials under the previous government and most recently a group of 30 animal disease experts, who wrote an open letter in The Observer on Sunday 14th October, have condemned the policy, stating that culling will prove inhumane and ineffective in bringing bTB under control.

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