On Wednesday, MPs gathered in a Parliament meeting room to debate the government's acutely controversial badger culling strategy. The last of two pilot culls, in Gloucestershire, came to a premature end on 30th November, when a widely-criticised eight week extension was brought to a close after a little over five weeks.

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The Gloucestershire cull company and cull licensing body Natural England agreed that "achieving a further significant reduction in [badgers over] the coming weeks [was] unlikely" and opted to end the cull as open season for caged shooting of badgers concluded. If culling had continued into December, markspeople would have been forced to revert to the 'free-shooting' methodology the culls were initially intended to road test.

Cull companies failed to meet any of their kill targets despite both culls being extended, and quotas being reduced in the Gloucestershire zone, and the government has been criticised for lack of transparency in its dealing with wildlife and animal welfare groups expressing concerns and requesting information over other controversial aspects of the cull.

Wednesday's debate in Westminster Hall was the first such event since culling began. An opposition day debate and subsequent vote in June ended in failure for anti-cull MPs.

Derby North MP Chris Williamson, trustee of the League Against Cruel Sports, organised the debate and presented the opening remarks. Williamson called on Defra ministers not to go ahead with plans for a further three years of culling in two areas of Gloucestershire and Somerset.  He added that, even if kill targets had been reached in the South West this year, "Scientific evidence suggests that this is not the way in which we should proceed" on bovine TB.

MP slams government cull performance

Mr Williamson continued, "There is no justification for the cull [and culling] is likely, according to the scientific evidence, to make matters worse" in areas where bovine TB is rife. He refuted the government position that the experience of other countries, including Ireland, supports their position of tackling bovine TB in the 'wildlife reservoir', stating that in Northern Ireland, the bTB situation has improved by a greater degree than in the Republic, where badgers have been culled.

He also countered claims made by government ministers and cull organisers in the farming industry that many badgers shot over the course of the two culls had been "very sick", saying "there is no evidence  at all [to support these claims]. This is simply scare-mongering nonsense we are hearing from the government."

Anti-cull ministers added that, in Wales, where thousands of badgers have been caught for vaccination since the government opted to scrap plans for a badger cull in spring 2012, none have shown signs of TB. Defra has admitted that it does not know how many of approximately 1,800 badgers culled since August in the two trial zones have TB. The effect of culling on disease is not being tested in either cattle or badgers in the two zones.

Caroline Lucas, Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, backed Williamson's remarks. She added that, according to the architects of the Randomised Badger Culling Trials conducted between the late 1990s and mid-2000s, the current removal rate in the two cull zones risks further reducing the "already modest" improvements to bovine TB levels in the two zones.

Mr Williamson quoted the RBCT scientists, who concluded that "badger culling cannot meaningfully contribute" to bTB eradication, and added that experts including Professor Rosie Woodroffe of the Zoological Society of London have warned that the culls, as they have been conducted, are likely to have made matters worse.

Concluding an impassioned opening speech, Williamson railed, "We have ministers here saying they are standing up for the farming community… and yet they are putting cattle at greater risk and making matters worse and they knew, they knew, because the scientific evidence was there[from the outset]."  

MPs make recommendations

Williamson called on Environment Secretary Owen Paterson to commission an "Independent and systematic review, by the likes of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons or Royal Society," with a view to evaluating the social, environmental and disease control aspects of his department's controversial policy. Mr Paterson was not present at the debate.

The Derby MP was supported by others from across the political divide. Conservative MP for St Albans Anne Main said, "This [policy] has all the hallmarks of something that is going to roll on… Consistent references to success of culls do not sound like the opinion of an open mind." She called on the Defra Secretary to "Bring [the cull debate] back before the house," adding "it's what members want. It's not about hugging cuddly creatures; it is about deciding whether or not a protected animal deserves to be treated in this way."

South Yorkshire MP Angela Smith also referenced the findings of the RBCT and pointed to the government's own documentation which states that the purpose of the pilots was "to test the assumption that controlled shooting is an effective method of badger removal… over the course of a six week cull". She said, as they deviated from this, the culls could be judged a failure by Defra's own standards, however, Tory MPs responded that her assessment was premature, given that the independent panel tasked with evaluating the data on culling has not yet published its assessment.

Although pro-cull MPs consistently drew attention to the burden of bTB on farmers and the public whose taxes go towards compensating those affected, critics of the government policy highlighted missed targets and repeated revisions, including population estimates, policing costs and kill targets, arguing that these show badger culling is a "costly distraction", and accusing Defra ministers of "moving goalposts" to cast more favourable light on an unworkable and unpopular policy.

Some MPs, including Caroline Lucas, expressed concern over the potential for Defra to turn to other means of dispatching badgers if shooting is deemed unsuccessful. Lucas has asked questions relating to gassing of Defra ministers and admitted that she is "a little concerned" about the rumblings emanating from Defra, which has commissioned desk based research into gassing. She sought to draw attention to the work of groups offering volunteer-run vaccination programmes to farmers and landowners, as a viable and cheaper alternative to culling.

Welfare campaigners and senior police officers warned ahead of the culls that the government's chosen course of action could give the impression that Defra had declared 'open season' on badgers, a protected species. Persecution of badgers is thought to be behind at least part of the radically reduced population estimates in the two cull zones. Investigations in the Somerset cull zone uncovered evidence of organised illegal persecution and unsanctioned DIY 'gassing trials' by groups of farmers and in October a father and son were convicted of attempting to gas badgers in Somerset.

In England, over 300,000 cattle have been killed as a result of bTB control measures in the past ten years. An independent panel of experts will make its assessment of the culls based on information supplied by Defra and the cull companies in the New Year; Defra is expected to rule on rolling out culling further by February. The majority of MPs meeting in Westminster were of the opinion that any further decision on culling should be made in Parliament, not behind closed doors.

A Defra spokesperson maintained that "Nobody wants to cull badgers," but insisted that scientific evidence still supports culling as a means of reducing bTB in areas where the disease is widespread.

Gloucestershire vet and director of the Humane Society in the UK Mark Jones, welcomed the meeting on Wednesday, and backed the call for a full parliamentary debate before any cull expansion next year. he said, "Today's vibrant and very well attended Westminster Hall debate shows that there is huge interest amongst MPs in the badger cull issue, and rightly so.

"It would be outrageously undemocratic for Mr Paterson to force through his mass badger slaughter across large swathes of England next year, without at least allowing MPs to debate the matter. We also support the call for a fully independent systematic review covering all aspects of this controversial policy to help inform the debate."