I have long opposed the culling of badgers as a method of tackling bovine TB.
Therefore, when badger culling was debated in Westminster Hall on 13 October, I was pleaded to hear the Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs, Angela Eagle, say:
“The Government will end the badger cull by the end of this Parliament. We will replace it—safely and credibly—with vaccination, strengthened surveillance, better biosecurity and, crucially, we hope, a cattle vaccine and a DIVA test that can build resilience into the herds. That is how we will reduce disease, costs and stress, protect a much-loved native species and restore hope to the farming families who have lived for too long under the shadow of bovine TB.”
She also noted during the debate that “at the height of the badger cull there were 73 licences to cull badgers operating up and down the country, and in this season there are 21. By the end of this season only one licensed cull will remain. It will continue until the end of the season and then there will be an analysis to see how effective it has been scientifically. A decision will then be made about whether to continue with that final licence.”
Whilst I, like many, want to see badger culling brought to an end immediately, I welcome the Minister’s commitment to end this cruel practice by the end of this Parliament and am glad that the number of cull licences has already been reduced to 21, with only 1 possibly continuing after this ‘season’.
I can assure you that I will hold the Minister and the Government to this commitment, and I will welcome the day when badger culling has finally stopped in the UK.