The Farmers’ Union of Wales today welcomed a Court of Appeal ruling confirming that proposals to cull badgers in England to control bovine TB are legal.
The Badger Trust had appealed against a previous High Court decision which ruled that none of the Trust’s three grounds for a legal challenge were valid.
Responding to the decision, FUW’s TB spokesman, Carmarthen dairy farmer Brian Walters, said: “Once again it has been made clear that the English decision is legal and that licenses to cull badgers ‘for the purpose of preventing the spread of disease’ can be issued.”
Mr Walters said the decision highlighted the extreme contrast between the Welsh Government’s failure to grasp the nettle and the Westminster government’s decision to stand by a robust decision in order to save the lives of cattle.
“The scientific and economical arguments in favour of a badger cull in Wales are irrefutable,” he said. “The Welsh Government’s own figures suggest that vaccination will lead to an overall loss of £3.5 million, whereas a cull would have actually saved money as well as cattle lives.”
Mr Walters said the decision had opened the door to a number of options for Welsh farmers regarding which the FUW had already sought legal advice.
“If English farmers can be granted licences to reduce the horrifying impact of this disease on their herds, then Welsh farmers should have the same rights, and we will now be consulting with our members to ask how they wish us to progress.”