Land Owner Group Backs Badger Cull Extension
UK – Farm groups and land owners are supporting the government’s application to extend the pilot badger culls in Gloucestershire and Somerset, in the south west of the country.
11 October 2013
1 minute read
Extension applications have been sent to the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs subsidiary, Natural England.
The controversial culls have so far eliminated three fifths of badgers in the Somerset cull zone, an achievement borne out of what the Country Land Owners Association (CLA) has described as ‘undoubted commitment of Environment Secretary Owen Paterson.
CLA Deputy President Henry Robinson said government and farming are combining to put an end to an ‘appauling disease’.
"It is absolutely right that time extensions are being considered for both Somerset and Gloucestershire,” said Mr Robinson.
"The progress that has been made is an important first step in the 25-year action plan to rid England of this terrible disease which led to 38,000 cattle being slaughtered in Britain in 2012.”
But, he conceded that culling badgers has not been a simple task.
"The cull has proved challenging and badger numbers were far lower than expected, but progress is clearly being made in a safe, humane and effective way.
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