NFA have launched a campaign asking supermarkets not to stock milk from areas where badgers will be culled.
Some of the major British supermarkets are stocking milk from areas where thousands of badgers will be slaughtered this year with high velocity rifles as they feed at night. These multi-million pound businesses have chosen to support the Government's poorly thought out policy of culling badgers, despite the fact that a ten-year independent study, at a cost of £50million to the taxpayer, concluded that the culling of badgers would make no meaningful contribution to the spread of TB in cattle. In fact, it could make it worse.
While the major supermarkets Waitrose, Co-op and M&S are not stocking milk from the cull zones, several leading supermarkets including Tesco, Sainsbury's and ASDA have not pledged to back the badgers and are towing the Government line.
Christina Dixon, Campaigner at Network for Animals, said, “This policy is bad for badgers, bad for business and bad for Britain. We encourage supermarkets to stand up for badgers by asking them not to stock milk from farms that cull badgers and urge them to pursue progressive animal welfare policy in their business.”
The cull will involve the free shooting of badgers in two trial areas before being rolled out to other parts of the country. The Government’s best estimate is for a 16% reduction in TB in cattle after four years, but only if a strict set of criteria are met. Many experts have been quick to point out areas doomed for failure, citing the fact that 70% of badgers in an area must be culled to meet the target – yet nobody knows how many badgers there are.
Brian Davies, Founder of Network for Animals said, “Even Lord Krebs, the architect of the original badger culling trials, has come out this week saying the cull is 'crazy'. Science is being misused to justify an ill thought-out policy doomed to failure. We must take action now before irrecoverable damage is done to our countryside.”
NFA are asking our supporters to write to the heads of the supermarkets backing the cull and explain that supporting the Government’s abysmal approach to tackling TB will cost them the business of welfare-conscious consumers. We urge supermarkets to take action now and source their milk from the farms where badgers will not be killed.
