Badger Trust loses bid to stop culling

The Badger Trust lost its High Court bid against the culling of badgers (PA)

The Badger Trust has lost its High Court bid to block a cull of thousands of badgers in Gloucestershire and Somerset to tackle tuberculosis in cattle.

Mr Justice Ouseley, sitting in London, ruled that the legal challenge failed on all grounds and refused to quash a Government decision last December to allow the culls by farmers and landowners to go ahead.

At a hearing last month, the Badger Trust accused the livestock industry of using badgers as a scapegoat and underestimating the risk of cattle-to-cattle transmission of bovine tuberculosis.