BADGERS are being blamed for the spread of bovine tuberculosis (BTB) in cattle.

Other species carry the disease too – deer and rats, for instance – will they be the next to be culled (the polite word for killed)?

Before fox-hunting became illegal, hunts would sometimes block badger sett entrances so that foxes could not escape underground, although it is unlikely that they would actually hunt badgers, a protected and mainly nocturnal animal.

Although it is a widely held belief, badgers do not suckle from cows, says the Badger Trust. To attempt to eradicate BTB, the Government proposes to identify large areas where the disease is common and issue licences to allow farmers to employ trained marksmen to shoot badgers in the hope of killing off complete setts and, thus, they say, cleanse that area of BTB.

This is completely the wrong approach.

The Badger Trust, other wildlife groups and badger experts, and even the man in the street, can see serious problems here: some badgers may be injured and die an agonising death in the sett; thousands of perfectly healthy badgers will die; shooting in the dark will endanger other wild animals, pets and, possibly, human life; and other badgers from outside the hotspot area will move in, maybe reintroducing BTB (the perturbation effect).

If the shooting is carried out in the spring, thousands of badger cubs will die of starvation underground when their mothers are killed.

Another sinister threat is that the sort of person who enjoys killing for the sake of it, and having half- understood the situation, will think it is open season on all badgers, everywhere.

The answer is not killing badgers, but vaccination, both of cattle and of badgers.

An oral vaccination for badgers is being developed.

Tightening up of controls on cattle movement would also help.

It is time that the Government listened to the experts and not those whose answer to everything is more and more killing.

For more information, visit Dr Brian May's website, www.save-me. org.uk