This is an all out assault on our wildlife

THERE has been a belated notification of a licence to kill badgers in Staffordshire.

The licence was dated September 7, which means they are killing in our county and the Peak District and although they will not say exactly where, it is county wide and on our doorstep.

I believe as a nation of people who care about our wildlife the public has a right to know what is being done to our local wild creatures, in secret and by anonymous people.

An annex to the licence gives an indication of areas to be treated with notional care and they include: The Churnet Valley, Coombes Valley, Dimmingsdale, Swineholes Wood and Black Heath, Ford Green Reedbed, Goyt Valley, Leek Moors, Wetley Moor, Whiston Eaves, Hamps and Manifold Valley, Ecton Copper Mines and Thorncliffe Moor among others.

Of course there will be no oversight except that of the public to see that rules are followed.

Believe it or not there are actually quite strict rules that are supposed to be followed but who is to know what is going on as those involved are effectively self policing – which is a nonsense!

This is an all out assault on our wildlife and the Government is massaging the figures to keep on with this.

The Government has said that in the two initial cull areas that tuberculosis is coming down but they have no way of knowing if that is just because of tighter testing regimes and biosecurity.

They have omitted to say that in Dorset the number of reactors has gone up from 15.9 per cent to 20.6 per cent despite the killing of badgers.

The cull companies are seeking to take up to 42,000 badgers across the country and up to 4,321 in this county and there will be little if any control over their actions.

Their aim is to kill more than 70 per cent of badgers in each area and this is regardless of their health status.

Up to last year they had killed a total of 34,108 badgers including 19,274 in 2017 alone.

Professor Rosie Woodroffe of the Zoological Society of London has said that the Government has done no statistical analysis at all and that a review of the policy is due within three weeks but they are carrying on regardless, so what is the point of the review?

There will be nowhere left that is truly wild anymore as it is not just the badger that is being hounded as is evident with other wildlife crimes that go unresolved. David Carter Ipstones