Badger cull to be rolled out in 2015, says Owen Paterson
Caroline Spellman will be remembered as the person who tried to sell off our forests. Owen Patterson is probably now almost fully established in the long term popular memory as the “Badger Man”. Alan Michael was “Mr Fox Hunting” I wonder what label the next head of Defra will end up with? This article tells us:
The rollout of the badger cull in England has been “delayed and not postponed”, according to DEFRA secretary Owen Paterson.
Speaking to his local newspaper, the Shropshire MP said he was “bitterly disappointed” that the culls would not be widened to more counties this year.
And Mr Paterson pledged to do everything he can to stop the spread of bovine TB after a second year of pilot culls ends in Somerset and Gloucestershire this year.
The minister has repeatedly made it clear that he is committed to widening the culls to other areas affected by TB as part of a 25-year government strategy to eradicate the disease.
“This is not a postponement, it is a delay,” Mr Paterson told the Shropshire Star. “I feel bitterly disappointed that we cannot go any faster with this. We are delaying so that we can learn from the lessons of the pilots and move forward.”