Yet more shady goings on have emerged in the UK’s controversial badger cull. The cull is an attempt to slow the spread of bovine TB, despite there being no evidence that culling badgers will have a significant effect on the disease -or indeed any effect at all.
The most recent scandal to emerge in the story of this futile cull is an extraordinary level of secrecy surrounding its implementation.
DEFRA will not willingly release any information about how the cull is being carried out. When forced to by the Freedom of Information Act, DEFRA apparently edits the information so heavily it is useless.
A democracy cannot function properly when the government’s response to public outcry is not to reconsider its plans, or at least be open about them, but to resort to stealth.
The secrecy also means that no outside observer can be sure that the cull is being carried out properly and as humanely as possible.
Tell DEFRA to stop being furtive and tell the taxpayers what, exactly, it is doing with their money.
We the undersigned ask that you immediately end the deliberate secrecy surrounding the implementation of the pilot badger cull. We understand that DEFRA is refusing to release information about the numbers of badgers killed, numbers injured, who is checking the counts and what, if any, measures are in place to prevent fraud and ensure the cull is carried out as humanely as possible.
This is completely unacceptable behaviour from a government body. The cull is controversial in a large part because there seems to be almost no scientific evidence suggesting it will be effective in slowing the spread of TB. Reacting to the public outcry with in this unnecessarily furtive manner does not in any way build confidence that there is a case for the cull.
When tax payers’ money is being spent on something so apparently pointless, we have the right to know what, exactly, is going on.
Please take action on this as a matter of urgency.
Thank you for your attention.
