BVA statement on the leaked report findings on the badger culls in England
The BBC is reporting details of a leaked independent report into the humaneness, safety and efficacy of the pilot badger culls carried out in England last year. The full report of the Independent Expert Panel has not yet been officially published by Defra and BVA has not seen a copy of the report.
Responding to the media reports, Robin Hargreaves, President of the BVA, said:
“It is important to remember that these culls were pilots precisely because the government needed to test the humaneness, safety and efficacy of controlled shooting as a method of culling badgers. Indeed BVA called for controlled shooting to be tested and critically evaluated before it was rolled out.
“We are unable to comment in detail on the findings of the IEP until we have seen the report and had time to review all of the information, but if these figures are true then they would certainly raise concerns about both the humaneness and efficacy of controlled shooting.
“We will look at the published report in detail and consider BVA’s position in light of the IEP’s findings. We have always stated that if the pilots were to fail on humaneness then BVA could not support the wider roll out of the method of controlled shooting.”
BVA will not be making any further comments until our members and policy committees have had the opportunity to review the full published report. A joint meeting of the BVA’s Ethics and Welfare Group and Veterinary Policy Group will take place to discuss the report once it is published and BVA is inviting members to feed in their views via the BVA community at: www.bva.co.uk/community
