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The IEP was appointed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to evaluate the effectiveness, humaneness and safety of the Gloucestershire and Somerset pilots.
The leaked report shows that up to 18% of shot badgers took between five and ten minutes to die. This completely contradicts Defra’s assertion that “all badgers killed as part of the pilot culls have been shot cleanly and killed instantly”.
The panel also found that less than half the required numbers of badgers were killed in each area during the six week trial. This failure may lead to an increase in bovine tb in both the cull zones themselves and in the surrounding areas.
Lee Moon, spokesperson for the Hunt Saboteurs Association, stated: “The IEP has only confirmed what everyone already knew. The trial badger cull was cruel and didn’t work. Surely the Government won’t continue with this farcical policy, but if they do, the hunting season is almost at an end and hunt saboteurs across the country will once again mobilise to fight the culls. We have learned from last year and will be even more effective at disrupting the killing this time round”.
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