Group says cull bad idea Plea to help stop culling of badgers
ANIMAL lovers are being asked to join a campaign to save badgers from this year’s cull.
Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust said it had learned about the possibility of the county being included in this year’s badger cull and is asking people to support its public campaign to stop it.
According to the trust, a badger cull is expected to be announced soon for large areas of England this autumn and a leaked government document reveals several Leicestershire areas on the list for the first time.
Wildlife Trust branches around the country oppose culling and believe the science used to justify the killing of thousands of badgers every year to prevent cattle disease is flawed.
The animals are blamed for spreading bovine tuberculosis (TB) but the trust wants them to be vaccinated instead of shot.
In the past five years, Wildlife Trust officers in Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire have been running a vaccination programme and the fear is that a cull will result in vaccinated badgers being shot, ruining the entire project.
John Clarkson, head of conservation at Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust, said: “Bovine TB is a horrible disease with devastating effects on affected cattle, farmers and their livelihoods.
“However, we do not believe culling badgers is the answer to the spread of the disease with evidence showing no scientific case for culling locally and our supporters have made it clear that they do not support culling either.
“The possibility that badgers could be shot in Leicestershire for the first time is devastating news.
“It will seriously undermine the longterm investment we and the public have made and risk the future of our vaccination programme.”
Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust has written an open letter to farmers in which they say they have “been poorly served by the unsubstantiated, weak science behind culling”.
The letter adds: “We are very conscious of the hardship that bovine TB causes in the farming community and the need to find the right mechanisms to control the disease.
“However, we believe that a badger cull is not the answer and have been vaccinating badgers as a positive alternative.”
Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust are asking people to support its public campaign to stop the cull coming to the county by signing the petition at:
action.wildlifetrusts.org