Badger Trust launches legal challenge against culling
The Badger Trust CEO says Defra's decision to continue culling without independent monitoring is "unlawful".
The Badger Trust has launched a legal challenge against Defra's decision to continue culling badgers in Somerset and Gloucestershire this year.
An application for judicial review has been made to the High Court, challenging the legality of continuing the culls.
The trust says Defra's secretary of state Owen Paterson "unlawfully" failed to put in place an independent expert panel (IEP) to assess the safety, effectiveness and humaneness of culling in 2014.
Pilot culls were carried out in Somerset and Gloucestershire last year to find out whether badger culling could safely and effectively reduce the incidence of bovine TB.
Both areas failed to remove the target of 70 per cent of the badger population, and an IEP found the culls failed on both humaneness and effectiveness.
MPs recently voted against a roll-out of the culls to other areas of the country. However, culling in Somerset and Gloucestershire is set to continue this summer.
Badger Trust CEO Dominic Dyer said: "Owen Paterson made a clear commitment to Parliament and wider public that an independent panel would oversee and evaluate the pilot culls and report back to the Government prior to any decision being taken on the policy being rolled out more widely.
"It is not acceptable for the Defra secretary of state to now push aside the concerns of both the IEP and the BVA, by moving ahead with a further badger cull in Gloucestershire and Somerset this summer without any independent monitoring in place."
Mr Dyer adds that a roll-out of the culls to other areas without independent monitoring "is in our view illegal and will lead to huge public and political anger."
He is calling on the BVA and members of the 2013 pilot cull IEP to support the trust's legal challenge.
Defra has published guidance for the vet sector ahead of a proposed UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement.
