Runcorn & Widnes Weekly News

Badger cull ‘no effect’ says MP

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A RUNCORN MP supported a ban on shooting badgers during a debate in Westminste­r.

Mike Amesbury, Labour MP for Weaver Vale, backed the 106,000 people who petitioned Parliament in opposition to the practice.

Badgers have been blamed for spreading tuberculos­is (TB) to cattle leading to licensed culls, by shooting, in Cheshire and other areas.

Mr Amesbury said: “I am sympatheti­c to farmers in my constituen­cy and further afield who suffer financiall­y due to infected cattle having to be destroyed.”

But he argued there was ‘growing evidence’ to suggest culling badgers didn’t work.

“While culling reduces the badger population locally, it causes any surviving badgers to range more widely, potentiall­y leading to a greater spread of TB,” he

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