THE Tories’ scheme to cull at least 2,000 badgers this year makes no sense, animal-rights campaigners said yesterday.

Farming minister George Eustice insisted that “strong action” was needed to stop the spread of tuberculosis in cattle in order to protect the dairy and beef industries.

Natural England, the public body responsible for the protection of the environment, has given permission for pilot culls previously carried out in Gloucestershire and Somerset to be repeated this year.

And in an extension of the scheme, it has granted a licence to shoot 835 badgers in Dorset within a six-week period in the first year of a four-year scheme.

The government believes that the badger population is a repository for TB and helps the spread of the disease among cattle.
But activists said the cull would do nothing to stop infection.

Dr Toni Shephard, head of policy and research at the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “This is a death knell for more than 2,000 more badgers, the overwhelming majority of which will not have bovine TB (bTB).

“It’s also a death knell for common sense as the current evidence heavily suggests that bTB is predominantly spread between cattle, not from badgers to cattle.”

The government has disbanded the independent expert panel, which found that the pilot culls in 2013 were neither effective nor humane.

“This is a stubborn policy which will not help farmers, will cause unrest yet again in rural areas and will waste huge amounts of public money, for absolutely no good reason,” Dr Shephard said.

Badger Trust chief executive Dominic Dyer said both of the initial pilot schemes also failed to reach the minimum numbers deemed successful for limiting the spread of bTB.

More than 98 per cent of badgers “pose no risk to cattle whatsoever,” Mr Dyer continued, and 85 per cent are “likely to be completely bTB free.”

Out of the 15 per cent of badgers that may test positive for bTB, just 1.6 per cent are “capable of passing on the disease,” he said, citing data from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra), Mr Eustice’s own department.

Labour shadow environment secretary Maria Eagle said: “The decision to extend these inhumane, ineffective and unscientific badger culls underlines the government’s complete disregard for evidence.”

Earlier this week, rock musician Brian May threatened to take legal action against Natural England by seeking a judicial review of the policy if the culls continued.