sign up to the 'Stop the Badger Cull' campaign

I have written to my MP John Pugh today asking him to sign the Early Day motion on the badger cull. The motion has been sponsored by, among others, Adrian Sanders (pictured here with Brian May) and reads:

That this House opposes the mass cull of badgers; urges the Environment Minister to follow the lead of the Welsh Assembly by implementing a vaccination programme with increased levels of testing and improved bio-security as a more effective way to tackle bovine tuberculosis long-term; notes that vaccination is the more sustainable and humane solution which has already been shown to significantly reduce the potential transmission of tuberculosis and that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' own advisory body, Natural England, has said that it has little confidence in the cull delivering the predicted long-term benefits; and further urges the Minister to halt the imminent cull which could make the situation worse and lead to the badger population in some areas being entirely wiped out.

Brian May has also sponsored a petition on the official government website against the cull which reads:

Stop the badger cull

Responsible department: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

We, the undersigned, call on the government to stop the planned cull of badgers on the following grounds: 

· Over 70% of the badger population in large areas of the country will be killed, many of them healthy.

· The method of free-shooting badgers could cause severe to many thousands of badgers. 

· Independent scientific studies have shown that culling would be of little help in reducing bovine TB, and even suggest that it could make things worse in some areas. 

We urge the government to stop the cull and implement the more sustainable and humane solution of both a vaccination programme for badgers and cattle, along with improved testing and biosecurity. 

This e-petition has received the following response:

This e-petition has now passed the threshold of 100 000 signatures.

The Leader of the House of Commons has written to the Backbench Business Committee, who are responsible for the scheduling of debates on e-petitions, informing them that the petition has reached 100 000 signatures.

The Backbench Business Committee meets weekly to hear representations from MPs for debates in backbench time. The Committee can consider any subject for debate, including those raised in e-petitions, but an MP must make the case for their consideration. More information about the Committee is available on its website http://www.parliament.uk/bbcom

A futher response from the Government on this e-petition will be published in due course.

Please sign up at: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/38257

photo stolen from Liberal England