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England’s
government has confirmed an expansion of its controversial badger cull program,
now offering £50 per a badger killed throughout most of the country.
‘Ineffective’
The cull –
which was called ‘ineffective’ by top researcher Professor Lord John Krebs in
2011 – is justified by the fact that badgers contribute to the spread of bovine
tuberculosis.
Commenting
on the cull, one government representative referred to bovine bTB as ‘the
greatest animal health threat to the UK’ – but made no recorded mention of Krebs’ 2011 findings or the estimated 40 million animals killed in UK agriculture
annually.
Tax-payer
money
As of May
1, roughly £800,000 had already been spent in Cheshire County alone, with an
estimated expense of £50 million nationwide.
A
spokesperson for anti-cull group Wounded Badger Patrol said: “During a time of
economic austerity it’s shocking that not far short of a million pounds of
taxpayers’ money can be found to police the government’s badger cull in
Cheshire.”
‘Inhumane’
Animal
rights groups have urged the government to end the cull – which was the cause
of over 19,000 badger deaths in 2017 alone, and was referred to by Badger Trust conservationist Dominic Dyer as ‘the most expensive wildlife destruction policy in British history’.
RSPCA,
representative David Bowles said: “We agree action is needed to deal with bTB,
but culling badgers is not an effective way to achieve this.
“The cull
is inhumane, ineffective and costly.”
