The Court of Appeal at the Royal Courts of Justice has awarded renowned ecologist and wildlife campaigner Tom Langton (with whom we’ve recorded very insightful podcasts over the last four years) permission to challenge an important aspect of the 2020 “Next Steps” Bovine TB eradication policy. Tom is a professional conservation ecologist with experience in wildlife justice, and has helped bring Natural England & Defra to account in tribunals & High Court trials over badger culling since 2017.

The trial will test whether government failed to meet its statutory duty to protect biodiversity in England under the 2006 Natural Environment and Rural Communities (NERC) Act before ordering its quango Natural England (NE) to organise the decimation of badgers across much of the west of England.

Government policy hangs on inscrutable modelling, based on culling data from three areas only, and only up until 2017. It ignores more recently published science that has a further years data, which shows that any claim of modelled benefit is premature. The manner in which bTB policy influences our wider countryside, including badger removal, has never been properly addressed.

Cruel, unnecessary badger killings will massively increase from now until 2026, with huge new cull areas. Already 140,000 badgers have been shot and this will now double to around 280,000. Following on from these culls, there is a little mentioned long term policy to expand the extermination of badgers locally with reactive-style culling of 100% of badgers. This will be happening in and around our woods, fields and nature areas, perhaps even close to where you live, with multiple side effects and implications. It just has to stop.

Help stop badger culling adding to England’s Biodiversity catastrophe

With your help we can now fight on and to stop the policy in its tracks before it causes more damage to biodiversity protection and recovery. And before it does more harm to badgers, cows, farm families and livelihoods. All of whom deserve far better approaches to dealing with a widespread livestock disease that infects and pollutes the environment in very many unseen ways.

Together, in numbers, the Badger Crowd can achieve this. The immediate need is to raise £24,000 over the next few months to cover costs for the dedicated legal team planning and preparing the case. They will write legal representations, give advice, attend hearings and deal with matters relating to the deeply flawed government “Next Steps” policy. Every penny raised goes to legal essentials and nothing else.

• If you would like to support Tom’s efforts, please go to Crowd Justice – Help stop badger culling adding to England’s Biodiversity catastrophe – Your card will only be charged if the case meets its target of £8,000 by Jul. 01, 2021, 10 a.m.