The opposition Labour party has challenged the government's secretive handling of deeply controversial badger culls currently taking place in Somerset and Gloucestershire. Shadow environment secretary Mary Creagh has called for an update on the progress of the trial culls, amidst leaks said to be from Defra and NFU officials, which suggest the two pilots are failing to meet their targets.

The organisations behind the cull deny the reports, but Ms Creagh raised a point of order in the House of Commons on Friday, demanding greater transparency from Defra. Sources from Somerset, where culling started first, suggest that less than 100 badgers were shot in the first two weeks of the cull; cull companies need to kill 50 badgers each night in order to meet their targets and fulfil the 'effectiveness' criteria of the culling trials.

image expired

Having asked the speaker of the House to ensure her questions about the cull are answered by Defra ministers, Ms Creagh also wrote directly to Defra Secretary Owen Paterson asking him to release information on the number of badgers killed in the cull zones and clarify how culls are progressing.

In late August, when shooting began in Somerset, the shadow secretary blasted Defra's policy. She said, "The Government's divisive badger cull will cost more than it saves and will spread bovine TB in the short term as badgers are disturbed by shooting. We need a science-led policy to manage cattle movements better and a vaccine to tackle TB in cattle. Ministers should listen to the scientists and drop this cull."

Defra maintains that culling is necessary to address the 'wildlife reservoir' of bovine TB as part of its bTB eradication policy, though a number of eminent scientists have questioned this, and branded culling "a costly distraction" from effective control measures. Trial culls in the South West will not measure the effect of culling on TB rates, instead the trials are intended to explore the humaneness and efficacy of free-shooting badgers by night, a strategy chosen by the government as it is less expensive than the more reliable caged-shooting.  

Officials have said that information about the cull will be made public once both trials have been completed. However, pressure on the department is mounting.

Defra currently stands in breach of a ruling by the Information Commissioner's Office over its refusal to release information related to monitoring the cull's 'humaneness'. Last month, the ICO found that Defra had inappropriately used the Environmental Information Regulations to avoid disclosure of documents and gave the department 35 days to release information requested by the Humane Society International. The deadline passed on Tuesday 10th September.  

Meanwhile, on Monday, the Secret World animal sanctuary in Somerset published photographs of a badger found dead away from its sett, with its organs outside its body, having apparently been mortally wounded and fled. The trust said the nature of the badger's injuries and the place in which it was found suggested it had suffered, rather than been a 'clean kill'.

In response, a Defra spokesperson said the department is "confident" that the badger shown in the photos was not killed as part of the cull. Even if this is the case, the release raises worrying questions and gives more weight to warnings issued by the Badger Trust that the culling policy has legitimised wildlife persecution, creating the impression that "the government has declared open season on badgers."

The opposition Labour party has challenged the government's secretive handling of deeply controversial badger culls currently taking place in Somerset and Gloucestershire. Shadow environment secretary Mary Creagh has called for an update on the progress of the trial culls, amidst leaks said to be from Defra and NFU officials, which suggest the two pilots are failing to meet their targets.