John and I support wildlife charity Wildlife Aid Foundation.  Here’s what their Founder has to say on the proposed badger cull.

The Wildlife Aid Foundation has hit back at the Government over its decision to go ahead with culling badgers in England, and has pledged to mobilise thousands of supporters to campaign against the implementation of the policy.  The Foundation called the decision by Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman “another catastrophic blunder” and said it showed that the Coalition’s claim to be “the greenest ever government” were “hollow and meaningless”.

There will be two culls next autumn which the Government will fund but which will be carried out by farmers or by animal exterminators hired by the farmers.  Simon Cowell MBE, Director of the Wildlife Aid Foundation, said: “This is Do-it-Yourself culling and I dread to think how many badgers will end up dying a slow, lingering, painful death.”  Mr Cowell said there was only a very flimsy scientific case for the cull and that most experts had said it would not help curb the spread of Bovine TB at all.

“This is a crazy scheme that will do no good for farming – but plenty of harm to the natural environment. It is a breathtakingly inept decision and will prove massively unpopular. It is the worst thing the Government have done since they tried selling off the nation’s forests earlier this year. That was also Caroline Spelman – which shows how out of touch she is.”

He said that with a few months to go before the culls are scheduled to begin, there is a chance for the Government to be persuaded of “the error of its ways” – just as happened with forestry privatisation. “So please write to the politicians and let them know how you feel.”

Personally, I want healthy cattle and healthy badgers, and I don’t believe that culling is the answer – any more than it was in the Foot and Mouth epidemic a few years ago.  Perhaps this government needs to learn from the mistakes of the last!

…  Anne