Badger cull will be needless massacre

A West expert has con-demned plans to kill thousands of badgers as a "costly, ineffective and needless massacre".

Tony Dean, chairman of the Gloucestershire Badger Group, was reacting to proposals from farmers, landowners and vets who are drawing up plans for a mass cull in the West Country to control tuberculosis in cattle.

Tens of thousands of badgers look set to be slaughtered under a programme of controlled killings that would start next summer and be repeated for the next three years.

The plans defy official recommendations from a 10-year study that say the much-loved mammals should be spared, but Farming and Animal Health Minister Lord Rooker believes it cannot legally be stopped.

Mr Dean, 74, who has worked closely with badgers for many years, says the cull would be waste of money.