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Queen's Brian May Calls for U-Turn on Badger Cull Plans

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Mar 23rd 2011 by Andrew Kerr

Queen's Brian May has spoken out over a proposed badger cull in Wales. Those in favour of the cull believe it could help prevent the spread of bovine TB, but May has other ideas.

In an open letter to members of the Welsh Assembly (via BBC News), the guitarist described himself as "a concerned member of the British public, whose primary profession happens to be playing rock music" before referring to the cull proposal as an "inhuman act of vandalism."

May wrote, "Everybody, and I mean everybody, who has studied the evidence, knows that (a cull) cannot work, and that the only true way to eliminate this disease is through better screening and movement controls in cattle farming."

He concluded, "The slaughter of badgers cannot prove anything -- all it will do is appease the farmers in the short term, who understandably, perhaps, 'want to see something done.'"

A vote on the proposal is due on Wednesday, March 23, and if carried would see badger populations in north Pembrokeshire, and parts of Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire under threat.

Liberal Democrat Peter Black, one of the AMs (Assembly Members) against the cull said, "Myself and a number of AMs have seen evidence to suggest culling will actually increase the instances of TB inside the culling area and will have very little effect in the long term in reducing TB."

Despite a court previously ruling in favour of the National Badger Trust, rural affairs minister Elin Jones decided to resurrect the proposal on the back of what she described as "substantial scientific evidence".

 

 

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