THE badger cull is not a mistake, it is long overdue. I speak as a keen naturalist.

Lee Connor, in Friday’s Echo, gives a lot of space to an emotional rant against the government and claims a wealth of scientific evidence and brings forward a lot of spurious facts to argue against a badger cull. He, and many like him, need to cut through the emotion and anti-Tory rhetoric and face facts. Badgers are a massive reservoir for TB in the wild and create a huge bill paid for by taxpayers for compensation to farmers. Also, their numbers are beginning to escalate greatly to the detriment of other wildlife.

Does Mr Connor not realise that in a natural environment all wild animals are predated upon and this controls their numbers? In the world we have created no such predators exist so we have a duty to control pest species however cuddly they may appear; controlling is not cleansing. Less emotional politicking and more realism please.

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