Monty Don questions protected status of badgers
TV presenter Monty Don has been drawn in to the badger cull debate by suggesting badgers deserve no protection from culling.
Anti-cull activists contacted Mr Don on his Twitter account and asked him to join and speak at a protest march against the cull later this month in Bristol.
However, in reply, Mr Don, who is best known for presenting the BBC’s Gardeners’ World, said: “Not sure whether the cull is in principle a bad thing. Probably ineffective but not necessarily wrong as a trial.”
A second activist followed up his comments with a tweet that branded the cull as a “political decision” and, many believed that “our wildlife deserves better treatement [sic]”.
In reply, Mr Don tweeted: “No, it is an attempt to control TB. We cull many animals – don’t know why badgers get special treatment.”
Badgers are protected in Britain by the Protection of Badgers Acts 1992. The act protects the animals from deliberate cruelty and it is an offence to interfere with a sett or unlawfully kill a badger.
Mr Don, who has his own hill farm in mid-Wales, is also president of the Soil Association.
In an interview with Farmers Weekly earlier this year, Soil Association policy director Peter Melchett said its policy on the cull was to “leave it to individual farmers to make their own decision (over whether they cull badgers).
However, the Soil Association’s long-term position on TB and cattle is a preference for the development of vaccines that will protect cattle and wildlife.
A Soil Association spokeswoman said: “Soil Association president Monty Don stated that he did not want to speak at the Bristol Badger march – which is entirely his choice.
“We are very proud to have him as our president, and although he (of course) may have personal opinions, this does not necessarily reflect the views of the Soil Association.”
“Monty’s comments around the special treatment of badgers relates to a larger debate about a single species approach to the management of wildlife by humans.”
She added: “The control of populations of animals like rats, rabbits, foxes or deer on farms and in the countryside are important issues that need to be part of a wider debate in society.
“We need to give serious consideration to how we interact with nature and how we make decisions that affect one species or another, whether intentionally or not. It’s important that we ensure as a society that we care for the welfare of all animals – domestic, farmed and in the wild. “We strongly support the vaccination of both cattle and badgers when it comes to bovine TB.”
DEFRA secretary Owen Paterson insists that culling badgers, a known reservoir of TB, is an essential part of the government’s 25-year plan to eradicate the disease from this country.
Last year, 28,000 cattle were slaughtered in England because of bovine TB, costing the taxpayer more than £100m.
Pilot badger culls in Somerset and Gloucestershire are under way, the results of which will determine whether a cull can be rolled out more widely across England next year.