Welsh badger cull details are announced

The RSPCA is bitterly disappointed that the Welsh Assembly Government is to push ahead with plans to cull badgers.

The Welsh Assembly Government Minister for Rural Affairs Elin Jones has announced a badger cull in north Pembrokeshire, as well as parts of Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire.

RSPCA Senior Wildlife Scientist Colin Booty said:

“We’re well aware of the costs of bovine TB in Wales, along with the efforts the Welsh Assembly Government is making to control the spread of the disease in cattle. However, we feel this Government’s decision to eliminate badgers from this area of Pembrokeshire is wrong.”

“The elimination, or virtual elimination, of badgers over very extensive areas of countryside is not a sustainable policy approach. This cull won’t add anything to the debate about how to tackle bovine TB in the wider countryside because science has already shown that culling can make no meaningful contribution to cattle TB control in Britain.  However, we are worried that this ‘pilot’ cull will mistakenly be seen to set an example, and there will be pressure to roll it out to other parts of Wales”. 

Cull to start in spring

With the badger cull set to begin in the spring, we are calling on the WAG to deliver on its promise to use only the most humane and appropriate methods of culling. In the meantime, the RSPCA continues to support vaccination, which provides a real opportunity to target bovine TB in wildlife. The Society hopes that including badger vaccination in the TB Order indicates that the Welsh Assembly Government is now going to actively pursue this option. 

Vaccination

Badger vaccination will help to build knowledge about how an oral vaccine may be used in the future and is a very positive step in the right direction.

Whilst vaccine development is ongoing, the RSPCA believes other methods of control should continue, such as pre and postmovement testing and stringent biosecurity measures. Both need proper monitoring and enforcement to make sure that they are being carried out and are allowed time to have an effect.
  

Take action now 

• Write to your Assembly Member.
   
• Sign our badgers petition. Go to: www.backoffbadgers.org.uk
   
• Organise a meeting with your Assembly Members to urge against a cull of badgers.