A LEGAL challenge over this year’s badger culls is being taken to the Court of Appeal on Thursday (October 9).

The Badger Trust won the right to appeal a ruling in August by Justice Kenneth Parker who dismissed their application calling for this year’s culls to take place with independent monitoring.

In September, Lord Justice Maurice Kay granted the Trust permission to appeal the High Court’s ruling saying it had a real prospect of success in its appeal against the Government.

The Court of Appeal will be asked by the Badger Trust to find that the Secretary of State for the Environment, Elizabeth Truss, has unlawfully failed to put in place an Independent Expert Panel to monitor and analyse the results of the continued culling of badgers in Gloucestershire and Somerset in 2014.

The trust says that without the panel there can be no proper independent assessment of the safety, effectiveness and humanness of the cull, which is now in its fourth week.

Dominic Dyer CEO of the Badger Trust and Policy Advisor at Care for the Wild commented on the Court of Appeal hearing saying: “The refusal of Defra Secretary of State Elizabeth Truss to put in place any independent monitoring of the badger culls currently being undertaken in Somerset and Gloucestershire is a national disgrace.

“The Government assured us that the badger cull would be carried out more humanely this year, but within a week of it starting, Secret World Wildlife Rescue reported receiving a dead badger from the Somerset cull zone which had been shot in the abdomen.

“We can be certain that this is not an isolated case and many other badgers are being killed by incompetent marksmen in similar ways, which is cruel and unacceptable."

A Defra spokesperson said: “It would not be appropriate to comment on ongoing legal proceedings.

“However, we have always been clear that the Independent Expert Panel’s role was to oversee the six-week pilots in the first year of the culls.

"We have acted on their recommendations to improve effectiveness and humaneness and this year's programme will be independently audited.

“Overseas experience shows a comprehensive strategy is the way to make England disease free.

"This includes cattle movement controls and vaccinating healthy badgers, which could play an important role in preventing the spread of bovine TB to new areas of the country.

“A responsible and effective approach must also include culling in areas where the disease is rife.”

During this year’s culls which run for six weeks, shooters will have to kill a maximum number of 785 badgers in Somerset.