Badger cull is far from being a black and white issue

AS the Welsh Assembly has learned, a decision to cull badgers is just the first step into a swamp of complications. And now the Welsh experience has relevance for us all, with the coalition Government committed to a cull in southern England, too.

Up to polling day, both Conservatives and Lib Dems were cautious on the topic. They were going to be "led by the science" on the control of bovine tuberculosis (bTB). That was an ambivalent promise.

But in the minds of Tory-voting farmers, there was no doubt what it meant. And as soon as their party was in charge at Defra – where, surprisingly, the Lib Dems were not given any position – they pushed for reassurance that it meant at least trying some badger culling. And they got it.

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What they have not got is a date. Westminster will be very happy to let Wales go first.

But this week, the Badger Trust has announced that the Court of Appeal has given it permission to try again with an argument that the Welsh plan is illegal.

Gwendolen Morgan of London law firm Bindmans LLP, representing the Trust, explains: "By law, badgers may only be culled if such culling would 'eliminate or substantially reduce' the incidence of TB

in cattle."

The argument is over the meaning of "substantial". At the first hearing, the High Court agreed with Welsh Rural Affairs Minister Elin Jones that it meant "more than merely minor or trivial". The Appeal Court will be asked to rule that it means much more, and that "the science" is not optimistic.

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Ms Jones has talked herself into a corner on the issue and a statement on her behalf yesterday said there would be no postponement of the cull preparations pending the appeal.

"We want to follow the example set by New Zealand. Their Animal Health Board recently announced that the number of herds testing positive to TB has fallen to an all-time low. We must tackle all sources of infection, including the reservoir of infection in wildlife."

Most farmers would salute all that. But others are beginning to see why culling was ruled out by the last Secretary of State at Defra, Leeds MP Hilary Benn.

A key factor in his decision was "public acceptability". In other words, he was concerned not so much about badger deaths as human confrontation. In conversation with farmers, he stressed his concern that protests might disrupt a cull and make it ineffective or even counter-productive.

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Earlier that year, the Animal Liberation Front painted Welsh farm union offices with slogans including "Cull Farmers, Not Badgers". According to ALF-sympathetic websites, members of the Welsh Assembly have had paint stripper thrown over their cars and tyres slashed. Lately, a company thought to be assisting the cull preparations has been "named and shamed", in an ominous echo of the vicious campaign against anyone associated with vivisection.

The Badger Trust is a respectable organisation. But in the wings are people who see killing badgers to keep down the cost of human food production as an excellent illustration of the case for "direct action".

The level of concern is already showing in Welsh areas where badger

setts are being mapped. Surveyors have been reported turning up for work in masks and being tailed by mysterious policemen who refuse requests for their ID and quote anti-terrorism law.

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"We effectively have a police state in North Pembrokeshire," according to an anti-cull Lib Dem in the Welsh Assembly, Peter Black. But he admits: "There are stories of some pro-cull members who have had their vehicles and offices attacked. Clearly, there is an element prepared to take opposition further than is acceptable."

The way Mr Black sees it, the Welsh Assembly voted for a cull because it wanted to prove its willingness to be different from London government. Now its Labour/Plaid Cymru coalition finds itself

pathfinding for a Conservative policy.

There may also be some unease in Lib Dem ranks. Their grassroots

include people who will share the unhappiness expressed by George Monbiot, public face of the radical greens, who said in the Guardian in January: "This cull (the Welsh) will prove that our relations with the natural world have scarcely altered since the dark ages."

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A recent scientific review of past experiments in England and Wales concluded that culling costs more than it gains, because infected badgers scatter under attack and spread the problem. But the NFU's bTB expert, Catherine McLaughlin, says cost is a contentious measure.

"Culling cattle costs farmers a lot more than Defra pays out in compensation," she commented. "And experimental culling costs more than practical operations."

The data revealed a measurable overall benefit in terms of reduced incidence of the disease, she said. There also appears to be support for culling in the experience of other countries – notably Ireland.

In short, the science can lead to whatever conclusion you think is right. The choice is a matter of politics.

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