Badgers. Those wonderful creatures, whose life is so often the centre piece in wildlife animal documentaries, are under threat of yet another cull in the hope of controlling the spread of bovine tuberculosis, even though the majority do not even carry the disease!

Although, badgers are protected under the Protection of Badgers Act (1992) there is a provision which allows badgers to be killed to prevent disease. In 1999 the Government carried out an appalling experiment (the Krebs experiment), to find out whether or not destroying badgers in controlled areas would result in fewer cases of bovine tuberculosis (TB) in cattle.

More than 10,000 Badgers have been killed but to date no evidence exists that this was successful in stopping the spread of the disease. This appalling inhumane experiment cost us the taxpayers a staggering £45 million. Yet only £1.4 million has been spent in researching the better alternative!

These callous indifferences to wildlife must not go on and we will continue to lobby the Government to ensure that these harmless, shy creatures are left alone to live their lives with their family groups in peace as they were always meant to.