WHILE the National Farmers’ Union is threatening to withdraw support from the new Conservative government for not rolling out the badger culls to new areas, the National Trust has dealt the cull policy a hammer blow.

Within days of the British Veterinary Association withdrawing support for free-shooting badgers because too many badgers died slow and agonising deaths, the National Trust has confirmed that it will not support any roll-out of the culls on trust land.

Patrick Begg, National Trust Rural Enterprises director has confirmed: “It remains our position following the first Independent Experts Panel assessment that we cannot support the roll-out of further culls on our land.”

The panel was set up by the government to monitor the safety, effectiveness and humaneness of the pilot culls in Gloucestershire and West Somerset.

Following a highly-critical report from the panel after the 2013 culls, in which the culls were judged to be ineffective and inhumane, the government dispensed with the panel’s services for the 2014 culls.

Andy Hamilton, spokesman for Wessex Badger Guardians commented: “Yet another rotten plank of this ramshackle policy has collapsed. When will the government and the NFU accept that there is no scientific justification for slaughtering thousands of badgers? They surely cannot continue ignoring the near unanimous opinion of the UK’s leading animal scientists that the policy will not only fail to tackle the problem of TB in cattle, it could even make matters worse.”

Sarah King, a member of Wessex Badger Guardians, added: “Farmers and badger supporters all want to see effective action to eradicate this cattle disease.

“There are other ways of tackling TB. We hope the government will follow the Welsh example where there has been a 50 per cent reduction in TB incidence without killing a single badger.”

Andy Hamilton High St West Coker Yeovil