Fight for badgers

I am dismayed to see the Tory-led government is ploughing ahead with plans to begin a cull by issuing licenses to shoot 
badgers.

Cattle TB is a blight on livestock and farmers that must be tackled but this is a plan which will not work. An iconic British animal will be slaughtered for no good purpose.

A ten-year scientific study on TB and badgers concluded a cull ‘would not only fail to achieve a beneficial effect, but would entail a substantial risk of increasing the incidence of cattle TB and spreading the disease’.

In short, it could make things worse!

It was for that reason that Labour ruled out a cull when in office.

A cull didn’t make sense then and it doesn’t make sense now.

The government should abandon this barmy idea and concentrate efforts on a comprehensive vaccination plan.

Peter Skinner MEP

Member of the European Parliament for the South East