A senior police officer has warned that, should a badger cull go ahead in England next year, over-stretched police forces could struggle to control clashes between farmers and animal rights protesters. The national co-ordinator for domestic extremism warned government ministers that other major policing events over the next two years may stretch departments to their limit, meaning they will be ill equipped to deal with the fallout from a badger cull.

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According to Defra plans, two trial culls are planned next year for south-west England, where bovine TB is endemic, as part of the government’s new bTB control strategy, unveiled in July. The plans have proven highly controversial; opponents have questioned everything from the cost of the proposed culls to the methodology of shooting roaming badgers and the impact it will have on the incidence of bTB.

Prior to the police chief’s comments, reports were rife of a Cabinet split over cull proposals between Defra head Caroline Spelman and Home Secretary Theresa May, who said a cull next year could stretch police departments to the limit.

Detective Chief Superintendent Adrian Tudway said going ahead with plans to shoot badgers could trigger a dangerous stand-off between armed farm workers tasked with killing badgers and animal rights protesters attempting to prevent them. He warned of "clear potential for harm to public safety" should protesters clash with those carrying out a cull. The warning was revealed over the weekend by The Independent.

Farming Minister Jim Paice has promised a decision on the badger cull will be announced before Christmas. However, Tudway warned in his letter that forces were already facing budget cuts, which would translate into losses of staff. Earlier this month, the Countryside Alliance made claims that cuts to police forces would impact hardest on the countryside.  

Furthermore, the 2012 London Olympics, the G8 summit in 2013 and the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow would present challenges for police forces already reeling from the effects of the cuts. The police chief’s comments were made on behalf of the Association of Chief Police Officers; his most pressing warning was against "pitting farmers against activists", which "has the potential to create divisions and therefore conflict within rural communities."

He said, "Given the difficult nature of policing this initiative, the steps forces are taking to respond to new financial pressures and the proximity of this initiative to other competing policies forces will find themselves under huge pressures to manage even small but sustained campaign activity, particularly where that includes inlawful direct action and subsequent criminal investigations."

Phil Hudson, head of food and farming at the National Farmers' Union, claimed the Tudway’s concerns were unfounded. He said markspeople tasked with shooting badgers would not enter into confrontations with protesters, but would withdraw.