Wildlife trust welcomes ruling on badgers
DERBYSHIRE Wildlife Trust says it welcomes a court decision to rule against a legal challenge that could have allowed a badger cull in Derbyshire.
The National Farmers Union (NFU) issued a legal challenge over the decision by the Government not to allow a cull in the county, as it lobbies for measures to halt the spread of Bovine TB.
Last week the court reached its conclusion and ruled against the NFU, which Derbyshire Wildlife Trust said was an important step. The trust’s Tim Birch said: “We welcome the decision of the court that ruled against the
NFU’S legal challenge of the UK Government over not allowing the badger cull to come to Derbyshire.
“We hope that the Government continues to support badger vaccination in Derbyshire and keep badgers free from culling.
“We urge the Government to widen its support for badger vaccination across the country and call for the badger cull to be stopped.
“Badger vaccination is the clear way forward. Bovine TB is primarily a cattle disease spread by cattle and this is where efforts to control the disease should be focused - not on badgers.
“Rather than wasting public money and time on court battles, the NFU should support badger vaccination and we repeat our call, for us to work together on rolling out a wider programme.
“Government policy has now changed to support vaccination and the NFU should be supporting badger vaccination, not obstructing it.”
Derbyshire Wildlife Trust continues to lead the largest badger vaccination programme in the country.
The trust has said it will continue with its programme during 2020 working closely with the Government, landowners and farmers.
Wildlife wants badgers vaccinated, not
Derbyshire Trust