25/03/2011

The Badger Trust yesterday (24th March) announced that it is seeking legal advice over the measures proposed and the reasons given for the decision to go ahead with a badger cull in Wales’ Intensive Action Area; a move which the Trust says will prove expensive, futile and unnecessary. A Welsh Assembly Government vote on Wednesday saw a motion to block the proposed cull defeated by 42 votes to eight.

In a press release, the Trust pointed to Defra figures which suggest incidences of bovine tuberculosis affecting Welsh beef and dairy farms has been falling steadily for two years, particularly in Dyfed which includes the Intensive Action Area. Furthermore, it said the cattle toll has fallen by almost half (45 percent) in Dyfed over the last two years without any culling: down from 8,361 animals in 2008 to 4,353 last year.

The badger Trust described Rural Affairs Minister Ellin Jones’ cull order as a “blatantly political decision” and highlighted the findings of Defra’s Independent Scientific Group, who, in 2007, oversaw a £50 million Randomised Badger Culling Trial and deduced, “Culling of badgers can make no meaningful contribution to the control of bovine TB in cattle” and that cattle measures alone would be sufficient.”

The trust successfully blocked the last badger cull propositions in Wales in July 2010 after a court ruled that a cull would not “substantially” reduce bTB infection. NFU Cymru called the legal action a “subversion of the democratic process” at the time.