Maria Eagle MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, commenting on the end of the Government’s badger culls in Gloucestershire and Somerset, said:

“It is appalling that David Cameron’s Government has allowed these culls to go ahead when they have already been described as an ‘epic failure’ by the Chief Scientific Advisor to Natural England.

“The Government must commit today to abandoning any attempt to seek an extension for these badger culls and work with scientists, wildlife groups and farmers to develop an alternative strategy to get the problem of Bovine TB under control.

“Bovine TB is a serious problem that needs addressing but these culls have been shown to be ineffective, inhumane and they may have made the problem worse.”

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