Queen’s Brian May calls England’s badger cull a “blood bath” as he shares update on new documentary
Queen’s Brian May has taken to social media to hit out at the ongoing badger cull in England, describing it as a “blood bath”.
The comments came in light of the way that the English government is working to end the spread of Bovine Tuberculosis (TB) in cattle, which has led to a widespread cull of badgers.
Taking to social media, the iconic guitarist revealed that he is currently working on a new documentary in partnership with the BBC, investigating the spread of the disease across UK farms.
In the footage, May shared that he had visited a farm in South Wales in a “search for the truth” on whether the root of the issue is predominantly due to badgers spreading Bovine TB to cattle – and whether killing badgers will reduce the spread or not.
“And so returning home with another piece of the jigsaw puzzle,” he said, travelling home after visiting the farm. “But at least hats off to Wales for looking for a humane solution. Sadly England is a blood bath.”
“I vow never to give up until the Truth is recognised,” he added.
In another Instagram update that same day, May posted a picture with Vivian, the farmer he met in South Wales, and revealed that although he “took meticulous care of his cattle”, he lost them all to the disease – as well as his livelihood and family’s way of life.
“In the ten years since this happened, the situation has only got worse for cattle farmers, indicating that a massive rethink is required,” he said, referring to the SICCT skin test for bovine TB, which, in many cases, is an unreliable way of checking if the cattle have the disease.
“It’s all been a tragic mistake… and governments from Cameron onwards have catastrophically failed the farmers,” he added. “We dare to hope that we can help put an end to this fiasco. If we can’t, all Britain’s cattle farmers can look forward to is more misery.”
In third post, he once again called out the English government for them issuing a badger cull as a solution to the issue, highlighting that even after the cull last year, the problem still continued to grow, meaning that another solution is required.
“The problem got worse last year, and there are no more badgers to kill, so the realisation is dawning that badgers are not the cause of this whole thing,” he explained. “The source of reinfection is within the herd,” he added, saying the spread was due to “undetected” cases of the disease in cattle.
Last year, Jeremy Clarkson spoke out against Brian May‘s defence of the animals, and labelled them as “bastards”.
In other Brian May news, the Queen guitarist recently revealed that he regrets never having the chance to collaborate with John Lennon.
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Liberty Dunworth
NME
