Our thanks to all of you for helping get this petition over 50,000 signatures. Wow. We are totally overwhelmed and grateful for your support. Together we can bring pressure to bear on the Oxford scientists responsible for the badger cull to speak out.
Yesterday we went back to Oxford University Department of Biology and handed in your petition. We presented a new updated letter and renewed our call for them to accept new research showing that culling badgers does not contribute to disease control.
The new government will soon decide whether to allow culling to continue or to end it.
An important new research paper "Absence of effects of widespread badger culling on tuberculosis in cattle" by Torgerson et al* was published in Nature's Scientific Reports this week. In it, the authors show that the Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT). data shows NO evidence that badgers make a significant contribution to bovine TB in cattle. There is no evidence for the so called 'perturbation effect'.
The whole scientific basis for the badger cull has just been demolished.
We've renewed our call for the scientists to break their silence.
We wait to see how they will respond.
We will continue to hold them to account for the misuse of their flawed science.
You can read our blog and get more information on our website here.