A BADGER conservation group is calling on people to lodge their objections to a planned experimental cull to reduce TB in cattle due to take place in West Somerset later this year.

Farmers within a 150 to 350-square kilometre area will be permitted to shoot badgers for a six-week period in the autumn under the Government-approved scheme, which has polarised opinions in the rural community.

The zone is thought to be between the River Avill, which flows almost parallel to the A396 near Dunster, and the River Parrett, which crosses the M5 just before Bridgwater, although Defra has not confirmed the precise details.

Now, Somerset Trust Badger Group chairman Adrian Coward is calling on opponents of the cull to make their views known to Natural England by next Thursday (February 23).

Mr Coward said: “Everyone in West Somerset is invited by Natural England to express their concerns about these proposals before they issue a licence to allow the killing to commence.

“Free running badgers will be shot by high-powered rifles.

“Shooting badgers after dusk over such a large area of land will have a significant detrimental impact on quiet enjoyment of the countryside and indeed create a serious safety issue should just one bullet go astray.

“Many hundreds of healthy badgers will be shot or wounded.

“It is fully appreciated that cattle farmers must have help in resolving the Bovine TB problem but killing badgers, even at the very best reliable estimates, will make little contribution to an overall solution.”

When he announced the pilot culling zones last month – a second will be held in Gloucestershire – Agriculture Minister Jim Paice said: “Bovine TB is a chronic and devastating disease.

“It causes the slaughter of tens of thousands of cattle each year, and is taking a terrible toll on our farmers and rural communities.

“Nobody wants to cull badgers but no country in the world where wildlife carries TB has eradicated the disease in cattle without tackling it in wildlife too.

“These two pilots are just part of a wide range of activity on bovine TB.”