BADGER BATTLE AS CULL GROWS
Queen star vows legal fight to stop 2,000 being killed
QUEEN legend Brian May has vowed to join a legal fight to stop Tory plans to slaughter more than 2,000 badgers.
The veteran rocker said culling so far had been “a disaster” costing taxpayers £5,000 for each animal shot.
But Ministers are widening the kill zones from parts of Gloucestershire and Somer setrset to Dorset in an attempt to control TB in cattle.
Targets arere for 835 badgers to be destroyedoyed in Dorset, 679 in Gloucestershire cestershire and 524 in Somerset.erset.
Farmers and Tory ministers blamelame badgers for spreadingg TB in cattle, and say cullingling will curb the disease.
But activistsvists insist it has little effectect – and are furious the e cull is being extended. Brian May said: “We are all hugely disappointed the Government has decided to continue, despite Natural England’s scientific advisor branding the cull ‘an epic failure’.
“The cull has been a disaster and has cost taxpayers over £5,000 per badger.
“Worse still, it’s certain most of the murdered badgers are free of bovine TB, but since the Government has refused to test anyy of the dead badgers this can’t be proved. This is a tragedy. Scientific advice has been ignored.”
Shadow Environment Secretary Maria Eagle added: “The decision to extend these inhumane, ineffective and unscientific culls underlines the Government’s disregard for evidence.”
But National Farmers Union President Meurig Raymond wanted the kill zones widened. He said: “There are many areas where the disease is rife that would benefit from badger culling.”
Farming minister George Eustice insisted “strong action” was needed.
Figures released in November showed 1,879 badgers were killed in Somerset and Gloucestershire in the first two years of culling.
The Government said it cost £6.3million, around £3,350 per badger. Care for the Wild said it was £5,200 due to police costs.
The badgerb cull h has been a disa disaster and cost t taxpayers over £5,000£ per badgerba BRIAN MAY OF QUEEN ON
LATEST KILLINGS
PACKED into an air-tight locked lorry and left to suffocate, the agonising final moments of the 71 men, women and children found on a roadside in Hungary are too horrific to imagine.
Yet imagine them we must in order to confront the humanitarian crisis engulfing Europe.
From the Mediterranean to Calais and now in Hungary, people are perishing in their thousands. We cannot just look away and pretend this is not also our problem. It is.
British military action in Libya and Iraq, fuelling the rise of IS, is a factor. Our politicians denounce barbarity in Syria then many of them avert their eyes when refugees seek sanctuary in Europe – including Britain.
No country can cope on its own with this crisis. A Europe-wide response is needed and Britain must be part of that solution.
The dying need more than our sympathy. So let us start debating, calmly and rationally, what we can do as a country.