As a charity working on behalf of wildlife both internationally and in the UK, Care for the Wild is extremely concerned about the proposed badger cull which will begin in a matter of weeks.

Readers of this blog will no doubt be up to speed with what’s about to happen, so I won’t go into details. But the key facts are:

• Up to 130,000 badgers could be killed by the cull
• Best estimates suggest that over nine years TB in cattle will be reduced as a result of this mass killing by around only 16% - so a massive 84% of cattle will be unaffected
• 70% of badgers in the cull zones are authorised to be killed
• It is likely many badgers will be shot but not killed – instead dying a slow and painful death

With that in mind, Care for the Wild is proud to be part of The Team Badger, alongside Brian May. Within that group though we are focussing on something we feel is important – the organic sector.

For those people who, like myself, buy organic dairy products, the thought that badgers might be culled on an organic farm is a worrying one. We discussed this issue with the Soil Association, which certifies about 95% of organic products, but they do not see this as a problem so are not willing to do anything about it.

This felt like ‘sitting on the fence’, so we commissioned a YouGov poll to see what people thought. Of 3,500 people interviewed, just over half said they always or sometimes buy organic products. Of these, 35% – that’s more than one in three – said they are likely to boycott organic products if they came from a farm where badgers were killed.

That’s got to be a pretty big concern to the organic industry, particularly as the first shots haven’t even been fired yet – how will people feel when they start seeing images of dead and injured badgers?

Our concern is that people should be given the ability to choose whether they buy products from badger cull farms. That’s why we’ve produced a logo which cull-free farms can use on their products.

That way, we are all free to make the choice as to whether this badger cull is a good thing. No anger, no boycotts, just choice.

If you agree, please share this logo with your friends, and why not contact the manufacturers of the dairy products you use to see if they will – or can – display it?

Philip Mansbridge

Chief Executive, Care for the Wild www.careforthewild.com