Ministers deny U-turn as badger cull put back until next summer

The Government’s controversial plan to kill badgers in a bid to tackle bovine tuberculosis has been postponed until next summer after it was discovered there were more badgers in the cull areas than previously thought.

Environment Secretary Owen Paterson told MPs yesterday that the badger cull policy – widely unpopular with animal rights groups – will now take place next summer.

The move has prompted opposition MPs to accuse ministers of another policy U-turn but Mr Paterson insisted the Government remained committed to a cull, something he said he was “utterly convinced” was the right thing to do.

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Last week it emerged there were many more badgers in the two areas in the South-West licensed for pilot culls than previously estimated, with some 3,600 in the West Gloucestershire area and 4,300 in West Somerset.

Farmers believe at least 70 per cent of badgers must be removed from an area for there to be a reduction in TB in cattle.

Mr Paterson said only a limited amount of time was available to carry out the cull so it had been decided it was better to wait until next year to make sure that the policy is implemented properly.

“Despite a greatly increased effort over the last few days and weeks, the farmers delivering this policy have concluded that they cannot be confident that it will be possible to remove enough badgers based on these higher numbers and considering the lateness of the season,” Mr Paterson said.

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“It would be wrong to go ahead if those on the ground cannot be confident of removing at least 70 per cent of the populations.”

Bovine TB has only been found on a handful of farms in Yorkshire with the disease confined to the South and South-West.

The postponement is bound to be unpopular with farmers in these areas, with thousands of cattle having been slaughtered after contracting the disease in recent years at a cost of millions of pounds.

However the decision appears to have been taken at the urging of the National Farmers Union, whose president Peter Kendall wrote to Mr Paterson proposing the delay.

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He said: “The industry is saying we need to do this, but we must get it right. The weather has been appalling and we’ve learnt the numbers are higher than anticipated. This is a responsible decision by the farming industry to make sure we get this right.”

The pilots aim to test whether the cull can be carried out “effectively, safely and humanely” as a first step to a wider programme of culling badgers to tackle TB in cattle.

British Veterinary Association president Peter Jones said: “Although vets and farmers in the bovine TB endemic areas will be frustrated by the delay in implementing the pilot badger culls, we are relieved that Defra has firmly stated that there has been no change in Government policy.

“The science has not changed. Scientists agree that culling badgers does reduce the levels of infection in cattle herds, and we know that no country has dealt with bovine TB without tackling the disease in wildlife.”

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But Professor Christl Donnelly, of Imperial College London, who was one of the scientists involved in the original culling trials, said: “Scientists do not have a validated model to predict how a higher badger density would change the risks to cattle.”

Comment: Page 12.

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