By Rashleigh MacFarlane
Badger culling is set to resume in two areas in Cornwall on 6th and 7th September, despite the government’s promise that it is shifting the emphasis within its bovine TB strategy towards vaccination.
The imminent shooting of nearly 5,000 badgers in Cornwall will stoke a political controversy which embraces the Prime Minister, his wife, and Cornwall Council.
Farmers have long felt aggrieved that the scientific community is against their preferred solution, but their distress was compounded last year when Boris Johnson's then girlfriend decided to stand up for badgers.
Documents leaked to The Times reveal that licensed shooters will be allowed to kill up to 4,844 badgers in Cornwall – and many more in other parts of the country.
The controversy is of particular interest in Cornwall because more than 100 farms are publicly-owned, as part of the Cornwall Council farms estate. County Hall officials have for years been desperate to prevent councillors from debating the issue, preferring instead to allow farm tenants to do as they please, within the law.
In January, the council’s chairman, councillor Hilary Frank, denied councillors a request to consider a suggestion that badgers on council-owned farms should be vaccinated rather than shot. The council had been due to debate a potential ban on culling by the end of June, but officials have used the Covid-19 democracy shutdown to prevent progress.
The two parts of Cornwall where Natural England has issued licences are known as Area 35 and Area 22. In Area 35, between 1,665 and 3,128 badgers can be shot. In Area 22, the licence permits between 216 and 1,716 badgers for culling.
Nationally, about 50,000 badgers are expected to be shot this year in 54 areas across England, the highest number since culling began in 2013 and a big increase on the 35,000 killed last year.
The decision to issue the licences is a victory for the farming lobby, which has fought back vigorously after a pro-badger intervention 12 months ago by Carrie Symonds, now the wife of Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Ms Symonds persuaded Mr Johnson to put pressure on Defra and Natural England. Details of the pair’s role was subsequently revealed in legal documents exposed as part of a court challenge brought by the National Farmers Union.
In March, Environment Secretary and Camborne & Redruth MP George Eustice promised a U-turn on badger culling, declaring that instead he wanted to focus on the development of a vaccine to prevent the spread of TB among cattle. Two months later, a judge ruled against the NFU and found that the government was entitled to halt the cull.
Ms Symonds, who has long campaigned on animal welfare, succeed in halting the cull which had been planned for this year. The decision had been so last-minute that some cage traps had already been set and baited.
The leaked details of the imminent cull were included in a massive data breach which has identified the telephone numbers and addresses of people working for the cull companies.
There is still no date for when Cornwall Council might debate the proposal which had been due for consideration in January.
Recent comments
32 weeks 5 days ago
34 weeks 3 days ago
34 weeks 3 days ago
44 weeks 1 day ago
1 year 4 weeks ago
1 year 29 weeks ago
1 year 39 weeks ago
1 year 51 weeks ago
3 years 23 weeks ago
4 years 8 weeks ago