MPs vote overwelmingly to halt badger cull in England
MPs voted overwhelmingly to halt the controversial badger culls in England on Thursday, but the backbench motion does not bind ministers to abandon the policy.
The motion, proposed by the Conservative MP Anne Main, stated that the pilot culls had "decisively failed" and was passed by 219 votes to one. But the farming minister George Eustice refused to respond to a challenge to hold a full debate and vote in government time.
The badger cull trials, aimed at curbing the rise of tuberculosis in cattle, failed to shoot the target number of badgers and also failed to meet humaneness criteria, according to leaked information about an independent report. The vote represents a new setback for ministers, who also lost the only previous parliamentary vote on the policy in October 2012, which was prompted by a huge response to an official petition to stop the cull.
After the vote, the shadow farming minister Huw Irranca-Davies told MPs: "Today parliament has expressed its very clear view [against] the mass cull of badgers." He said: "We have already the cross-bench support for a new way forward, a new consensus based on vaccination and cattle measures."
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/mar/14/badger-cull-mps-vote-halt-england