Badger cull `is breach of treaty'

WILDLIFE campaigners will accuse the Government today of breaching an international wildlife treaty by culling thousands of badgers.

The National Federation of Badger Groups is to use a meeting of the Berne Convention in Strasbourg to challenge the legitimacy of an experiment to examine the link between badgers and tuberculosis in cattle.

They say the culling of an estimated 20,000 badgers, which began in north Devon this week and will end in 2002, is unnecessary and illegal.

Elaine King, of the federation, told the standing committee of the Berne Convention, Europe's longest-standing wildlife treaty: "The Government is failing to meet its international obligations on wildlife protection ... The badger culling experiment is a breach of the convention."