Leading wildlife, veterinary and livestock experts – including top scientists previously employed to advise the Government – have written an open letter to DEFRA urging Ministers to immediately reconsider the decision to proceed with a third year of badger culling. The letter is highly critical of the government’s decision to roll-out culling to a new area in Dorset this year, given the chequered history of the first two years of badger culling in the south-west.

Signatories to the letter include Professor Ranald Munro, chair of the Independent Expert Panel commissioned by DEFRA to assess the first year of pilot culling, Professor Lord Krebs, who carried out the major report into tuberculosis in cattle and badgers, and Professor John Bourne who oversaw the 10-year Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT).

The scientists, whose open letter was published in the Guardian on Wednesday, said the cull has “failed to meet predetermined criteria for effectiveness or humaneness,” adding that the “government’s policy continues to be opposed by the majority of scientific experts, and remains deeply unpopular with a large section of the public”.


Commenting on Defra’s announcement of changes to its TB control strategy and the extension of badger culling on Thursday, Professor John Bourne said, "It is disappointing but predictable that Defra continue to either ignore, cherry pick or purposefully misinterpret the science. While cattle control measures have been strengthened they are still inadequate which emphasises the fact that Defra fail to fully appreciate that this is primarily an infectious disease of cattle and that the tuberculin test is very insensitive. As a consequence large numbers of infected cattle remain undiagnosed and perpetuate the disease in infected herds as well as spreading the disease to other cattle herds and wildlife."

Wildlife groups welcomed the letter, with Humane Society International advisor Professor Alastair MacMillan commenting, “Liz Truss cuts an increasingly lonely figure, championing a doomed cull despite calls from eminent scientists and vets to stop killing badgers and concentrate instead on the real solutions to bovine TB, which include stricter cattle movement controls, improved testing and heightened on-farm biosecurity. It's long overdue that the government listens to science and reason and ends the badger cull.”

Meanwhile, Farmers Weekly has claimed that NFU-backed applications to begin culling in TB hotspots in Devon and Herefordshire were turned down this year.

Reacting to the government’s announcement that culling would be extended in late August, NFU president Meurig Raymond claimed, “We know there are many areas where the disease is rife that would benefit from badger culling and where farmers are prepared to play their part in the fight against bovine TB. We expect [the government’s] 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”

Mr Raymond said, “While we are pleased that culling has been extended beyond Somerset and Gloucestershire we are very disappointed that more areas will not benefit from it this year. This is much slower progress than we wanted to see.”