Government Extends the Badger Cull
DEFRA Minister Zeichner focuses too much on badgers in new strategy when he should focus on cattle
Bovine TB spreads mainly from cattle to cattle — 94% of cases according to the Government. It would be hard to recognise this from the latest bTB eradication plan announced today by DEFRA Minister Daniel Zeichner MP.
With a focus of the new strategy still squarely on the innocent badger, Zeichner pledges to:
- Honour existing badger cull licences — that means around 50,000 badgers are targeted for slaughter in 2024, with an intensive cull starting this weekend. It could mean the same again in the last round of existing cull licences in 2025. This is on top of the 230,000 badgers already killed.
- To end the badger cull in this Parliament — however, that means badgers could be culled until 2029 and a new licence application is already in for Cumbria. This is shocking news for the majority of the population who oppose badger culling and thought it was going to stop.
See the full Badger Trust response here.
