The Humane Society International UK has accused Farming Minister David Heath of 'misleading' a Member of Parliament about the transparency of badger cull 'humaneness assessments'. The cull pilot schemes began in Somerset, then in Gloucestershire last week.
The Society said Heath misled Adrian Sanders MP in a written response on 2nd Sept. Sanders asked Heath why DEFRA heavily redacted a document about assessing badger cull suffering before releasing it to Humane Society International/UK for public distribution. Mr Heath stated: “not doing so could adversely affect public safety and/or damage the environment. Non-disclosure of information in this manner is permitted and is in accordance with the Environmental Information Regulations, which include specific exceptions.”
"In fact, the assessment of badger suffering was ordered to be released last month. That was the decision of the Information Commissioner’s Office, which in a decision dated 6th August had found that DEFRA was wrong to apply the Environmental Information Regulations in defence of its refusal to disclose. Mr Heath should have been fully aware of this at the time of his response."
Mark Jones, executive director of HSI/UK said: “Farming Minister David Heath owed a fellow Member of Parliament complete and up-to-date information on a subject that has aroused such strong public feelings and put so many animals in jeopardy.”
"DEFRA has refused to answer how its 'humaneness assessment' - one of the key stated purposes of the pilot culls - will be conducted. In spite of the Information Commissioner’s order to DEFRA to disclose, HSI/UK is still awaiting the information."
Few badger carcasses, representing less than 5 percent of badgers to be targeted, will be collected for examination during the pilot culls. DEFRA has failed to answer how these will be selected for post mortem examination; what examination protocols will be used to determine humaneness; and how shot and wounded badgers who retreat underground to die (and will arguably suffer the most) will be factored in to the humaneness assessment.
