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Badger Trust backs Welsh badger decision / DEFRA 'still on course' for cull decision

FARMERS GUARDIAN
Badger Trust backs Welsh badger cull decision
22 June 2011 | By Barry Alston

THE Badger Trust has welcomed the Welsh Government’s decision to conduct a review of the evidence and the best way forward in tackling bovine TB based on the science.

It says it “is pleased to learn that the badger trapping and shooting contract has been stood down pending the review.”

As a result it is reviewing with its legal advisers whether to put on hold its threatened fresh round of legal action.

It also adds that while the trust maintains that the evidence and reasoning underpinning the last administration’s decision to cull was legally flawed and was likely to have been quashed by the High Court on judicial review, it is pleased that there is now to be a rigorous review of the strategy by an independent panel.

“Although the Badger Trust remains determined to take whatever legal steps are required to safeguard this protected species against unjustified slaughter, the Trust now hopes that the proposed judicial review challenge can be avoided,” said a statement.

“The Badger Trust and its co-claimant supporters in the proposed cull zone are carefully reviewing the Minister’s statement overnight with the benefit of legal advice.

“The Trust also notes that the latest official bTB figures for the first quarter of this year show a continuing reduction, acknowledged by the Minister, in the number of cattle slaughtered due to bTb in West Wales.

“Although this is only an interim figure it continues the trend during last year as a whole which saw a 44 percent reduction from the previous year.

“No badgers have been killed to achieve these figures, and there has been a welcome and much-needed emphasis on stringent cattle-based measures.

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FARMERS WEEKLY
DEFRA 'still on course' for cull decision
Johann Tasker
22 June 2011

The shelving of a badger cull to combat bovine tuberculosis in Wales has no bearing on the situation in England, says DEFRA.

A decision on whether to cull badgers in England would be announced by the end of July, said a DEFRA spokesman.

The government was still on course to announce a package of measures to combat bovine TB before the parliamentary recess, he added.

It comes after Welsh environment minister John Griffiths announced that proposals for a pilot badger cull in north Pembrokeshire would be put on hold.

The Welsh government will now review the science behind the plans and other measures which formed the previous government's TB eradication policy. English farm leaders joined their Welsh counterparts in condemning the decision.

The Country Land and Business Association said the huge damage to farming and the rural economy by bovine TB meant the Welsh cull should have gone ahead.

CLA deputy president Harry Cotterell, who farms near Hereford, said: "Scientific research has already been done into the link between badgers and bovine TB. By appointing a panel of experts to re-examine the issue, the Welsh government has effectively kicked this key decision to the kerb."

Some 10% of cattle farms in Wales were under TB movement restrictions, with a reported £12m paid in compensation to Welsh farmers last year.

"Not to push on with the planned badger cull alongside other measures to control bovine TB in cattle is clearly a very bad decision."

Animal welfare campaigners, however, have welcomed the decision. The Badger Trust said it hoped any further steps to implement a cull in west Wales would be put on hold while the scientific review is underway.

But Welsh shadow minister for rural affairs, Antoinette Sandbach, said the decision not to cull was a severe blow to farmers.

"By effectively shelving the pilot cull, the Welsh Labour government has cruelly betrayed the farming industry right across Wales."

Ms Sandbach added: "We urgently need to see the specific legal and scientific evidence that has led to this postponement. I also want a breakdown of the full cost of putting the eradication policy on hold and conducting a review."

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