Sides square up over badger cull

Animal rights activists have told ITV News how they are preparing to disrupt the proposed cull of badgers in Gloucerstershire. Farmers want it to go ahead because the animals can spread Bovine TB.

The National Farmers' Union (NFU) has said it supports the Government's decision to go ahead with a pilot cull of badgers in an attempt to prevent the spread of Bovine TB.

A statement on the NFU website from earlier this month reads:

• The first licence to kill badgers was issued for a pilot cull in Gloucestershire.

• Farmers will be licensed to shoot up to 70% of the badgers in a 300 square kilometre area in Gloucestershire.
  
• A second licence for a pilot cull in Somerset is still being considered.

• A long-term study found that culling over a number of years on a large scale could reduce the incidence of TB in cattle herds by 16%.

More than 100,000 have signed a petition against a cull of badgers to tackle tuberculosis in cattle, in a bid to prompt a parliamentary debate on it.

The e-petition was launched by Queen guitarist and campaigner Brian May last week as part of the "team badger" campaign, after the first licence to kill the protected wild animal was issued for a pilot cull in Gloucestershire.

He told ITV News he hoped one million people would sign the petition because it would "persuade David Cameron he would probably lose his job if he goes ahead" with the cull.

As ITV News investigates both sides of the badger cull debate we meet Fleur and Jim at a meeting in Camden, north London, for activists working together to protect the wild animal.