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Wales badger cull: Queen's Brian May plea ahead of vote

BBC NEWS
23 March 2011
Members of the Welsh assembly are to vote on whether to permit a badger cull to stop the spread of bovine TB.

Badger (generic)

Elin Jones has revived the issue of a cull after an earlier court
appeal won by the Badger Trust

Anti-cull campaigner and Queen star Brian May, who wrote to AMs on the eve of the debate, plans to attend.

The debate centres on a legislative order that would allow a cull in north Pembrokeshire, and parts of Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire.

The issue was revived by rural affairs minister Elin Jones after an earlier court battle won by the Badger Trust.

Ms Jones said on 9 March she had decided to push ahead with the move after fully considering the evidence.

She also announced new controls to deal with TB in non-bovines, which include camelids - such as llamas and alpacas - goats and deer. Like cattle, they will be slaughtered if found to be infected by TB after tests.

She said her decision was based on "substantial scientific evidence".

But in an open letter to AMs, May insisted the cull would not be effective against the spread of the disease in cattle.

Brian May
“Everybody, and I mean everybody, who has studied
the evidence, knows that (a cull) cannot work”
Brian May
Queen guitarist and wildlife campaigner

Describing himself as "a concerned member of the British public, whose primary profession happens to be playing rock music," he referred to the cull as an "inhuman act of vandalism" against wild animals.

He said: "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 said for the past two years, the incidence of bovine TB had "fallen dramatically" with the tightening of cattle-based controls within the farming industry.

"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'".

'Humane and rational'

Wednesday's vote has been tabled by four AMs who are opposed to the cull.

One of them is Liberal Democrat AM for South Wales West, Peter Black, who also said he did not believe a cull would reduce TB cases in cattle.

He told BBC Wales: "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.

"We are all sympathetic with the farmers, we know this has to be tackled, but we believe a far more humane and rational way to do this, and cheaper as it happens, is to use vaccinations in cattle and badgers as a method in particular as a way of controlling TB in the long-term."

But Stephen James, deputy president of the NFU Cymru, argued that vaccination was not a viable option in the intensive action area (IAA) in west Wales.

"Vaccination prevents disease, it does not cure it," he said. "We know that there is a significant reservoir of disease within the badger population of the IAA."

Labour and Plaid Cymru pledged to deal with bovine TB in the coalition deal they struck after the 2007 assembly election.

The latest order comes ahead of the next assembly elections on 5 May.

Some AMs previously tried - and failed - in a similar bid to halt the previous badger cull.

Wednesday's Senedd vote is the same process, played out for a second time with a re-drafted order.

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