Court of Appeal hearing puts badger culling on hold

The Welsh government this week agreed it would not start culling badgers until after a Court of Appeal hearing of a challenge to its legality by the Badger Trust – now scheduled for June 30.
By The Newsroom
Published 18th Jun 2010, 16:50 BST
Updated 18th Jun 2010, 16:50 BST

For a summary of the legal issues by the Trust's lawyers, see www.bindmans.com/index.php?id= 749/ The Welsh Assembly's minister for rural affairs, Elin Jones, said: "In light of the fact that the hearing will now be held very quickly, I can commit to a delay in removing badgers until the judgement is delivered."

The Badger Trust has also challenged the chairman of the National Beef Association, Christopher Thomas-Everard, who was recently quoted saying: "It must be recognised the disease is spreading in badgers at the rate of 10 miles a year."

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The Trust said: "This claim runs clean counter to properly-validated research ... that proved the distribution and prevalence of TB in an undisturbed badger population was remarkably stable over decades. The movement of cattle is far more likely to spread TB from cattle to cattle and from cattle to badgers."

CW 19/6/10