High court rejects badger cull challenge

The high court has rejected an 11th-hour challenge to a government decision to let the latest badger cull go ahead without monitoring by a panel of independent experts.

The Badger Trust wanted a ruling to block "controlled shooting" of free-roaming badgers in Gloucestershire and Somerset unless a panel is put in place.

But Mr Justice Kenneth Parker, sitting in London, today dismissed the application for judicial review.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is testing whether the shooting method can be extended to other parts of the country to tackle tuberculosis (TB) in cattle.

Last year an independent expert panel (IEP) said in a report on the first year of the four-year pilot schemes that controlled shooting could not deliver the level of culling needed to bring about a reduction in bovine TB and was not humane.

Defra decided to continue the scheme this year without an IEP, leading to accusations by the Badger Trust that there had been a breach of "legitimate expectation" that a panel would monitor the entire pilot cull.

David Wolfe QC, appearing for the trust, argued at the high court in London last week that Defra had not simply "moved the goalposts" but was also "sacking the referee".

But the judge said he rejected the claims that a legitimate expectation had arisen.

He refused the trust, which was ordered to pay £10,000 towards Defra's legal costs, permission to appeal. The trust can still ask the appeal court to hear the case.

Earlier this week it was announced that Natural England has authorised the latest round of culling.

The authorisation letters require companies carrying out the licensed culls to kill a minimum number of badgers – 615 in Gloucestershire and 316 in Somerset.

The maximum number has been set at 1,091 in Gloucestershire and 785 in Somerset.

Six weeks of culling between 1 June and 31 January each year are allowed under the licences, with those carrying out the cull deciding on the start date.

The government and farmers insist that culling is necessary to tackle TB in livestock, which saw more than 26,000 cattle slaughtered in England last year, but opponents say it is inhumane and ineffective and alternatives such as vaccination should be pursued.

The Badger Trust's chief executive, Dominic Dyer, said an appeal was under consideration. He also called on the environment secretary, Liz Truss, to halt the culls or reinstate the IEP.

Dyer said the court ruling "does not detract from the serious public concerns over the continuation of the cull, including the most recent leaks regarding potentially unlawful and unsafe activity undertaken by culling contractors during the 2013 culls".

He added: "Given the indisputable failure of the 2013 culls, the still unresolved issues regarding safety and the significant uncertainty over the numbers of badgers to be killed in 2014, the only sensible option for the secretary of state is to call a halt to these pilots, and the potentially unnecessary and inhumane deaths of hundreds of badgers.

"However, if she is not willing to do so, we call on Ms Truss to reinstate the IEP.

"Whatever happens during the second year of the culls, in the absence of the IEP, it will be impossible to trust any findings supporting a wider roll-out, not least because this is already clearly the preferred option of the secretary of state."

A Defra spokesperson said: "We are pleased that the judge has found in our favour, as we have always been clear that the IEP's role was to oversee the six-week pilots in the first year of the culls only.

"This year we have made changes to monitor effectiveness and humaneness and the culls will be independently audited.

"We have a comprehensive strategy to make England TB free including strict cattle movement controls and badger vaccination, but overseas experience shows that we will not beat the disease without also culling badgers where the disease is rife."