Badger cull to be ‘hugely expensive’

It says the ‘appalling prospect’ followed an admission, by the Wales chief vet Dr Christianne Glossop, that even in 2018 ‘the end game will not necessarily be in sight’ for bovine TB.

“But when Assembly Rural Affairs Minister, Elin Jones, announced the badger cull she did so in the context of a three-year budget and gave every impression that killing badgers would be a quick fix for TB eradication,” said the trust’s Trevor Lawson.

He added she had been advised by scientists that the Assembly should learn to live with the disease in endemic areas in the foreseeable future, while applying proportionate measures to reduce cattle disease incidence, which would allow continued farming activity’.

“It is increasingly clear that Elin Jones has committed taxpayers in Wales to a hugely expensive badger extermination policy that will drag on for decades with no economic benefit,” said Mr Lawson.

“This is the politics of a banana republic, not a progressive Government.”