(UK) Badgers: Ministers 'wilfully' ignoring science advice

Source: BBC

23 June 2014 Last updated at 12:04 GMT

Badgers: Ministers 'wilfully' ignoring science advice

By Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent, BBC News

A senior government adviser has described coalition plans to change the way the pilot badger culls are assessed as "an abuse" of the scientific method.

Prof Timothy Coulson is concerned the government is considering a less reliable way of assessing humaneness in the cull and numbers of badgers killed.

He is also concerned that it will scrap independent oversight.

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"I am tempted to speculate that the government no longer wants to know whether the pilots are effective or humane," he says in his article. "They just want to cull badgers, regardless of whether the population or humaneness consequences can be assessed."

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Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27926951