DURING the last 25 years the Ministry of Agriculture has killed tens of thousands of badgers at a cost of millions of pounds to the taxpayer, though all badgers are fully protected by Parliament.

The badger slaughter started because the Government blamed badgers for spreading bovine tuberculosis in cattle. Yet the Ministry has admitted that there is not a single jot of evidence.

Despite this bovine TB is actually increasing in cattle and independent experts have recognised that the disease is actually spread from cow to cow.

The Government is currently re-examining its badger policy. We ask readers to write to John Major, (10 Downing Street) and to Tony Blair, MP and Paddy Ashdown MP (both at the House of Commons), asking that all government killing of badgers is ended forthwith.

JAMES NEWCOMBE, Dartmoor Badgers Protection Leaguer, Poundsghate, Devon, and MAUREEN ROLLS, Badger Guardians, Yelverton, Devon.

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