Badger protesters mobilise for battle

Animal welfare campaigners have vowed to fight badger culling in England (Reuters)

The fight to stop thousands of badgers being culled has been joined by the campaign group which played a key role in forcing the Government to drop plans to sell off forests.

The involvement of 38 Degrees heaps more pressure on the Environment Secretary, Caroline Spelman, to reverse her decision to let farmers shoot badgers in a campaign to stop them infecting cattle with bovine tuberculosis.

It also adds weight to Home Office fears that protests against the killing of badgers will attract not just fanatical environmentalists but the weight of Home Counties opinion.

In joining the badger campaign, online community group 38 Degrees made clear it is not totally against the possibility of a cull, but believes the case made so far by the Government is unconvincing.

A campaigner, Marie Campbell, said on the group's website: "Some of us believe that if the science really proved shooting badgers could make a real dent in the cow TB problem, it would be a tragic necessity.

"But 87 per cent of us agree on this: the Government's current plans to shoot England's badgers simply don't stack up."

Ms Spelman said bovine TB was expected to cost farmers £1bn in England alone over the next decade.