Badger Baiting

I have long campaigned for greater protections for badgers. I challenged the effectiveness of the badger cull and supported practical alternatives, helping to establish the first community-led badger vaccination project in the UK. This work has contributed towards the guidance which in turn has persuaded the Government to end badger culling as one of its tools to combat the bread of bovine tuberculosis. Here is a link to a recent Facebook post. 

Against that background, I share your concern that badger baiting is a particularly brutal form of organised cruelty. There is no place for such acts, and the law should reflect their seriousness. 

I support the call to strengthen sentencing, improve enforcement, and ensure wildlife crime units have the resources they need to tackle offences often linked to organised criminal activity. 

I have raised this matter with Mary Creagh MP, the Nature Minister, and will support measures which achieve these aims.