Star backs vaccine plan to halt badger cull

Rock star Brian May has launched a badger vaccination funding appeal as campaigners seek to bolster support for alternatives to a cull.
Badgers emerge from their sett in a North Yorkshire wood.  Photo by Whitfield Benson.Badgers emerge from their sett in a North Yorkshire wood.  Photo by Whitfield Benson.
Badgers emerge from their sett in a North Yorkshire wood. Photo by Whitfield Benson.

The guitar hero is one of the leading opponents of widely criticised Government trials of killing badgers to stem the spread of TB to cattle.

Now he hopes to recruit donors and volunteers for a drive to prove that vaccines are a viable alternative and persuade farmers to adopt the method.

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He hopes to tap into public disquiet about the cull which saw more than 300,000 sign his Downing Street website petition.

More than £200,000 has already been pledged by Mr May and sponsors such as the cosmetics firm Lush, with trials under way in some areas.

Rock band Hawkwind – who are playing a charity concert in aid of animal charities this month – have pledged £10,000.

The aim is to generate enough financial backing and volunteers for large-scale five-year programmes across five of the areas worst hit by TB.

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The musician is among those being trained to trap and inject badgers with the vaccine as part of efforts to reduce the costs.

Vaccination costs around £120 per badger, the Badger and Cattle Vaccination Initiative (BACVI) says. The cost per animal killed in cull trials was estimated at £4,000, and BACVI says the cost just of policing the cull was higher than a vaccination drive. The bill for security came in at £2.4m in the first year of the four-year pilot, or £1,300 per badger killed.

Campaigners warn that despite the failure of the pilots to meet even reduced kill targets, ministers are set to press ahead.

Farmers and landowners are being asked to prepare applications for licences to kill badgers before an evaluation of the pilots is published, they say.

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“One of the criticisms that has been levelled at those of us who have been trying to save badgers for the last three years is that ‘something has to be done and you are advocating nothing’,” May said. “Well we are advocating something very, very positive.

“It seems that what is being done at the moment is actually making things worse. Vaccination is, in the end, the only way of eradicating the disease.”

Supporters of vaccination say one of its biggest advantages is that unlike culling, it does not result in infected badgers migrating to other areas.