Badger cull plan sparks fury from campaign group
ANIMAL rights group PETA says it could launch a protest or campaign in Derbyshire if farmers in the county are given the go-ahead to cull badgers.
The Government has been consulting on how to deal with the spread of bovine tuberculosis.
A decision is now expect-ed within the next few months.
Farmers and landowners could be issued with licences to shoot badgers, which are blamed for spreading the disease to cattle herds.
West Derbyshire and East Staffordshire are among the areas which the National Farmers' Union says are badly hit by tuberculosis.
A spokeswoman for PETA, which stands for People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, called the Government proposals "speciesism".
She said: "In the UK, the jury is still out on whether badgers play any significant part in communicating diseases to cattle or to woodland fairies for that matter, so what happened to at least giving these animals the benefit of the doubt?
"As for any potential demonstrations or campaigning in your area over this, we are keeping our options open."
The Derby Telegraph has reported how the Animal Liberation Front said its members would damage culling equipment if the proposals went ahead.
2 Comments
by Sam, Sinfin
Wednesday, May 04 2011, 12:15PM
“It would help PETA if they stopped calling it culling and called it by its proper name of "slaughter" or even murder.”
by Johnno, Oakwood
Wednesday, May 04 2011, 11:24AM
“Actually, your previous story said some ALF supporters might 'consider' action and 'could' damage equipment (and then only according to the 'anonymous spokesman' you quoted). Today you have them saying they 'would' damage equipment. Not true. How shoddy is it when you can't even quote your own stories accurately?
PETA say they are keeping their options open. They don't say they 'could' protest or campaign and their considered response definitely doesn't justify your ludicrous 'badger cull plan sparks fury' headline. Not true.
Surely you don't think it is more newsworthy to whip up the unlikely possibility of 'hippies versus farmers' battles, than to do some proper in-depth reporting on both sides of this important debate?
They used to call it scare-mongering and a paper like the DT should be better than that.”