Bid to save localbadgers frombeing culled

Members of the South Downs Badger Protection Group are lobbying East Sussex County Council to kybosh and culling on council land when the controversial policy is rolled out in 2014.

And they hope an online petition can convince the powers that be to instead opt for a more humane vaccination programme.

The petition (which can be found at www.epetition.eastsussex.public-i.tv/epetition_core/view/Badgers) starts: “We, the undersigned, call on East Sussex County Council to prohibit the culling of badgers on council-owned land and invest in vaccination programmes locally. We ask this because we believe culling to be inhumane, inefficient and unscientific.”

And a spokesman for the people behind the petition told the Observer: “The object of the petition is to ensure that East Sussex County Council’s badger population is as safe as possible from slaughter and that the already available injectable badger vaccine is used in as many cases as possible.

“We ask this because we believe the culling policy is inhumane, inefficient and unscientific.”

They added that volunteers from the South Downs Badger Protection Group have already undergone training and are now fully qualified to vaccinate badgers.

The Government has decided on the culling to prevent the spread of Bovine TB but oppenents to the move say the links between badgers and Bovine TB have not been conclusively proved.