Badger cull faces legal challenge from animal rights group

The Badger Trust has written to Defra giving notice of the grounds of challenge. The move had been widely expected and comes after months of opposition to the cull from the trust.

David Williams, chairman of the Badger Trust, said: “Our concerns that the culls proposed will actually spread the disease have not been heeded. In the light of this and our concerns over the legality of the decision, we would be failing in our duty to badgers if we did not pursue a legal challenge despite the difficulty and cost risks involved.

“If there is an opportunity to save many thousands of healthy badgers, as there is here, we must take it on behalf of the many local badger groups and supporters on whose behalf the Badger Trust works. If successful it would also save farmers the expense of a policy which would not benefit them.”

Bovine TB has cost taxpayers millions of pounds so far and brought misery to farmers across the country who have lost their livelihood as a result of disease.

Ministers last month unveiled the plans for a pilot of the cull which will take place in areas of West Somerset and West Gloucestershire.