In a letter published in the newspaper yesterday, Director of Corporate Affairs Tom Hind wrote:
Sir
There is no way that the entire badger population in the two pilot cull zones will be destroyed (‘Culls risk illegally exterminating badgers, animal expert warns’, Guardian, May 27).
Safeguards have been put in place to ensure this does not happen. The culls will not take place over 100 per cent of the cull zones and will be carried out under licence by trained professionals to ensure they are safe, effective and humane. These safeguards are based on the most up-to-date science and badger population estimates generated using the best available techniques.
No farmer wants to see the wholesale destruction of the badger population.
Culls will only ever be carried out in areas where TB is endemic and will never be carried out nationwide. What the thousands of farmers who are living with the daily threat of bovine TB hanging over their businesses and families want to see is action taken now to help curb the spread of this terrible disease. This can only be achieved through a comprehensive suite of measures designed to tackle TB on all fronts, including in wildlife.