Badger culls court challenge fails

Sep 11 2012

A challenge to culls which will kill thousands of badgers has failed at the Court of Appeal.

The Badger Trust had attacked Mr Justice Ouseley's decision in July to uphold government proposals for two pilot culls to tackle tuberculosis in cattle: one in West Gloucestershire and the other in West Somerset.

The pressure group says that killing badgers will make no meaningful contribution to tackling the disease, which has been described as the most pressing animal health problem in the UK.

It claims that the scheme could lead to 40,000 animals being "pointlessly killed" over the next four years.

But, Lord Justice Laws, Lord Justice Rimer and Lord Justice Sullivan unanimously rejected the appeal, which was only concerned with statutory construction.

Afterwards, Patricia Hayden, vice-chairman of the Badger Trust, said: "We are very disappointed. We don't know what the next step is, but we will not give up."

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