11th July 2011
SEVEN months after its consultation on badger culling was closed, the Government is still refusing to disclose even the barest results.
Describing the secrecy as an affront to the tens of thousands of voters who took part, the Badger Trust said today: “This is the Government that promised transparency and honesty and yet it is refusing to disclose even the most basic facts–how many took part and how many opposed the cull. Instead, responding to a Freedom of Information request by the Trust it claims that releasing even that limited information would “have a detrimental effect on the Government’s ability to develop the (cull) policy”.
“It’s a stance and an excuse we totally reject. We know from Farming Minister Jim Paice that tens of thousands of replies were received–so we can only conclude that opposition to the proposed shoot-to-kill cull was massive and that the Government wants to hide, as best it can, the truth. This is in addition to earlier bad faith by leaking first, the minutes of secret consultations between nine professors and then, according to reports, the news that an oral vaccine would not be available until 2020 instead of 2015 as stated earlier.
“Jim Paice promised us a science-led cull. That’s another broken promise, for there is not a shred of scientific evidence to justify the key, cost-cutting component of the proposed slaughter, namely the totally untried, unproven plan to shoot free-running badgers at night”.
“We are not surprised that the Government wants to manage the release of the information as best it can, but it begs the question whether this consultation was anything more than a PR exercise by politicians intent on honouring an ill-judged, misguided election pledge.”