The badger cull has started, but it will do no good. The government can find money for all sorts of things that are of no benefit to society, while cutting things that are vital. What a shambles.
"TV presenter and cameraman Simon King, who is president of the Wildlife Trusts, warned the cull could do more harm than good and urged the Government to put pressure on Europe to allow a trial of vaccines for cattle.
He accused ministers of selectively picking facts from a major 10-year study in order to back up the cull to appease farmers, even though the research concluded culling could not make a meaningful contribution to tackling bovine TB in cattle.
"The report was based partly on the results of killing 11,000 badgers to establish whether this could make a meaningful contribution to the control of bovine TB (bTB) in England," he said.
"The unequivocal conclusion was that it could not. The problem is bTB in cattle - affecting a massive industry and individual farmers. The problem is not badgers.
"The fact is that this devastating disease can be carried by virtually any warm-blooded animal, including hedgehogs, rats, domestic cats, rabbits and so on. The vast majority of badgers in England are bTB free," he argued.
The Somerset-based wildlife expert said cattle vaccinations and a test to differentiate between which animals have been vaccinated and which have the disease have been developed, but cannot be used under EU regulations.
He urged the Government to put enormous pressure on the EU to allow it the exemption to begin trialling the vaccine in the UK.
"These trials are likely to take 10 years - and they have already stalled for that amount of time. We must start now and put an immediate halt to the killing of badgers."
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