Sir Brian May with Anne Brummer, chief executive of the Queen guitarist's Save-Me foundation
Queen guitarist and wildlife activist Sir Brian May is set to release a new documentary looking at the different attitudes towards badger culling which the rock legend says will turn cattle farming practices ‘upside down'.
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The programme, Brian May: The Badgers, the Farmers and Me, is to be broadcast on BBC2 at 9pm on Friday, August 23 and charts Sir Brian's journey as he explores the different attitudes of farmers and those who – like himself – oppose the culling of badgers in the ongoing battle against bovine TB.
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Sir Brian, along with Anne Brummer, the chief executive of his Save-Me Trust, have spent the past 14 years investigating the subject and the 60-minute film details what both Sir Brian - and several farmers interviewed - have described as the ‘monumental failure of British authorities to deal with the terrible problem of bovine TB in recent years, and the tragically wasteful resulting slaughter of both cows and badgers.'
"I do not blame people for being suspicious of me in the beginning, because, you know, I am a guitarist. You know I am a rock star. What am I doing? Why would I have some contribution to make?," said Sir Brian.
"I came in to save the badgers. I now realise that to save the badgers, you have to save everybody because it is a mess. It is a tragic human drama where people's hearts are broken, where animals are killed unnecessarily and the problem never gets solved."
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According to the programme makers, the 'heartbreaking testament' of the farmers featured in the documentary show that the current policy has failed them. The film questions why rates of infection and consequent numbers of cattle slaughtered are no better and in some areas worse than ever, following the cull.
Throughout the 60-minutes documentary, Sir Brian and Ms Brummer said they present ample evidence to 'confidently assert' that the very idea that badgers are part of the reinfection process is unsupportable. The advice given to the Government has been based on bad science, and amounts to an enormous red herring, standing in the way of finding a proper strategy to solve the problem.
