Protesters take badger battle to Senedd steps (From Western Telegraph)

Pembrokeshire Against the Cull take badger protest to Welsh Assembly Government

6:00pm Monday 18th January 2010 in News

Pembrokeshire Against the Cull (PAC) staged a dramatic protest on the steps of the Senedd

Pembrokeshire protesters have taken to the steps of the Senedd today (Monday) to make their feelings known about the Welsh Assembly's badger cull.

Welsh Rural Affairs Minister, Elin Jones, announced last week that the badger cull, which is part of the assembly's bovine TB eradication programme, will go ahead in a pilot area for a period of five years.

This will effect the badger population in an area of around 180 square miles (288km) in north Pembrokeshire and neighbouring parts of Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire.

Ms Jones said the only way of eradicating bovine TB, was to tackle the disease in both badgers and cattle.

Pembrokeshire Against the Cull (PAC), who have already made their opposition to the plans know in a series of dramatic demonstrations, headed to the Senedd this morning to stage their own symbolic cull.

Demonstrators in badger costumes gathered on the steps, one of them was then was coaxed into a cage and "shot" by another protester.

"Our main objective is to let Elin Jones and the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) know that the cull is not going to be popular," said PAC member Cliff Benson.

"They can’t exterminate our badgers without a prolonged and growing wave of protest and public disapproval.

"This is the National Year of Biodiversity and the WAG is setting in motion an action that, if taken to its logical conclusion, would be the first extermination of a native mammal in Wales since the last wolf in the twelfth century.

"We aim to show the WAG that west Wales might seem a long way away, but they are not going to be allowed to ignore us in Cardiff.

"I can't believe that I'm even in this position, trying to protect wildlife from the Welsh government."