Badger Cull Hearing Date Announced
Monday June 25th and Tuesday June 26th have been announced as the dates for the Badger Trust’s judicial review of Defra’s decision to allow badger culls to take place this autumn in England. The High Court in London will hear the case, in which the Trust will plea to overturn Defra’s decision.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has chosen to sanction pilot culls in West Gloucestershire and West Somerset but if the judge rules against, the policy may be delayed or stopped altogether.
In 2010, The Badger Trust’s judicial review of the Welsh Assembly Government’s decision to cull badgers in north Pembrokeshire succeeded on all grounds in the Court of Appeal. As a result, the policy was delayed and this year the Welsh administration abandoned the plan.
The Trust said it believed culling “would not prevent the spread of disease but rather make matters worse, at great cost to farmers, the taxpayer and badgers.”
However, during last week’s Beef Expo 2012 event, NBA TB committee chairman and South West farmer Bill Harper said that he was adamant the cull would still go ahead. Describing TB as a “fire which is spreading ever outwards”, he said it needed tackling from a range of angles.
Defra has published guidance for the vet sector ahead of a proposed UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement.
