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Badger cull looks likely in England, says Paice

WALES ON SUNDAY
Jul 25 2010 by James McCarthy

A BADGER cull in England is set to go ahead despite judges ordering one in Wales be halted.

Animal rights campaigners have now threatened to launch a challenge to force an end to the plan – which has been welcomed by the farming industry as the only way to stop the spread of tuberculosis among cattle.

Farming Minister Jim Paice announced a consultation would be undertaken this autumn, but said it would almost certainly recommend a cull.

The Tory MP claimed that the costs of trapping and killing badgers would be covered by the farming industry.

He said: “I don’t want to cull badgers, so believe me, if there was a better way to do it we would do it.

“But the reality is that there is no country in the world that has got rid of TB without addressing the problem where it is in wildlife.”

The Welsh Assembly was ordered to halt its cull this month because its plans were not specific enough.

But Mr Paice intends his to be legally watertight.

The intention is that the cull will be able to start in England next summer.

National Farmers Union president Peter Kendall insisted TB was “destroying the British dairy industry”.

The Badger Trust, which brought the case against the Welsh Assembly, said that it was “obliged to do all it can to ensure the welfare of the species by a variety of means”.

 

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