We protested outside the Department of Statistics in response to it's Head of Department Professor Cristl Donnelly. She has published 'new' research, doubling down in defending  her flawed methodology and refusing to speak out against continuing to cull badgers. We were proud to present your petition - now signed by nearly 52,000 people to her.

Linda Ward, one of Oxfordshire Badger Group's charity Trustees writes ...

I've been on many demonstrations and marches with the Badger Army during over 10 years of protesting against the  cruel, ineffective and costly badger cull. Yet I was still a little surprised to find myself organising a protest outside Oxford University's Department of Statistics. 

Professor Cristl Donnelly, now Head of Statistics analysed the original Randomised Badger Culling Trial. We now know - thanks to an independent re-analysis of the data, that the methods chosen gave a false positive result. Her findings - that culling badgers can reduce the spread of bovine TB to cattle - underpin the resulting slaughter.

The Professor refuses to accept that her results are not reproducible and has doubled down, publishing two new papers defending her work and providing yet more 'Policy Based Evidence' that culling badgers works. We fear that  DEFRA will use this to persuade the new Labour government to continue the cull, and possibly allow farmers to kill "all the badgers" leading to local extinction.

I’m ashamed that ‘my university’ would act in this way, but alas, I'm no longer surprised. After a year of pleading with Oxford scientists to ‘do the right thing’ I’ve  seen first-hand how these eminent scientists appear to close ranks to protect their reputations and careers. They seem unable to even consider the possibility that they are wrong.  Over half the badger population of England – including 10,000 from  Oxfordshire - have been killed as a result. It is really important that we continue to hold them to account.

I'm so grateful to everyone who was able to join us last Thursday, especially Dominic for his excellent speech, and to everyone who has signed our petition.

Read our full report/ blog and open letter here