Badger Cull Will Go Ahead, Vows Cameron

David Cameron has vowed a badger cull will go ahead to avoid "appalling consequences" for farmers, cattle and the badgers themselves.

The Prime Minister warned the Government could spend "another billion pounds" dealing with the consequences of bovine TB, which is partly spread by badgers, if culls do not happen.

Mr Cameron, in an interview with BBC Radio 4's Farming Today, insisted the coalition had the political courage to help the countryside.

"They are going to go ahead and it's important that they go ahead. I think the countryside needs from the Government not just cash and commitment but it needs courage," he said.

"This does require political courage, but we have that political courage because quite simply it's the right thing to do.

"If we don't do anything we're going to be spending over the next 10 years another billion pounds dealing with the consequences of bovine TB.

"Let's be clear there are appalling consequences not just for the cattle and the farmers, there are also appalling consequences for the badgers."

Some 5,000 badgers are due to be killed in two pilot culls in west Gloucestershire and west Somerset.

It is believed the culls could start this month.

Culling has been licensed over a six-week period in the six months from June 1.

The pilots will assess whether sufficient badgers can be killed in an area to have an impact on reducing TB in cattle.

If they are are successful, the Government plans to roll out the cull more widely in TB hotspots.

Various charities including the RSPCA, Animal Aid, IFAW and Care for the Wild are bitterly opposed to the measure.

An online petition condemning it launched by Queen guitarist Brian May became the most signed e-petition on the Government's website, with more than 260,000 signatures.

Hundreds of protesters, including May, marched through London in June before handing in the petition to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.