Warwickshire Wildlife Trust 'deeply concerned' by badger cull application
WARWICKSHIRE Wildlife Trust (WWT) has said it will vigorously object to moves to cull badgers in the county.
An application for a cull licence has been submitted to Natural England, although no details of where the cull zone is being proposed or how that will be implemented have been published.
And the trust said there is no conclusive evidence that culls have an impact on decreasing bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in cattle, and described them as ‘ineffective, inhumane and expensive’.
Karl Curtis, director of reserves and community engagement, said: “Warwickshire Wildlife Trust is deeply concerned that recent government proposals indicate an intention to increase badger culling further.
“This is especially the case now Warwickshire is affected by being part of a proposal of expanding cull zones.
“The trust will be responding to the government consultation on this. We also ask people to respond to the consultations where it is appropriate to do so.
We sincerely hope that these consultations and the bTB Review help us to reach an end to the cull in favour of strategic and wide-spread badger vaccination schemes, and of investment in developing a cattle vaccine.
“In the meantime we will ensure that we keep ahead of any developments regarding a worrying roll out of a cull in Warwickshire and will keep our members updated via our website and communications.”
Mr Curtis said the trust continued to support local vaccination through the Warwickshire Badger Group by loaning equipment, and assist other trusts with their vaccination efforts across Nottinghamshire by loaning traps and equipment.
He added that if the cull is brought to Warwickshire the trust will not permit the culling of badgers on any land it owns and that it would continue to engage with land owners to promote the benefits of vaccination and other non-lethal control methods to reduce the spread of bovine TB.
Badgers and their setts are protected by law and current government strategy, published in 2014, means that only ten new areas can be licenced for legal culls every year, but it is proposing to remove that limit.
The WWT said the strategy has resulted in over 34,000 badgers being culled.
New cull zones are also proposed in Avon, Berkshire, Derbyshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire and Staffordshire.
A Natural England spokesperson said information on these applications or expressions of interest would not be released, but that all areas were either high risk or edge areas for the likelihood of Bovine TB infection.
