Media Release

12th July 2012

National Dairy Boycott as badger ‘cull’ gets the go-ahead

Growing consumer boycott could already be costing the industry over £1 million a year

LEADING animal campaigning group Viva! has pledged to bolster its consumer boycott of English dairy products in light of today’s decision at the High Court to allow two trial ‘culls’ of badgers to go ahead in England later this year.

Viva! say that this is a blow for science, common sense and most of all the thousands of badgers that will die if these trials lead to even more ‘culling’ across England next year.

A Viva! online petition to boycott dairy has already been signed by over 2,000 people. This figure is expected to grow rapidly in light of today’s decision. The boycott could already be costing the English dairy industry in excess of a million pounds a year (1).

The group will also produce hundreds of thousands of new door-dropper leaflets explicitly linking dairy consumption with the killing of badgers in England – and urging people to dump dairy to save British wildlife.

Viva! campaigns manager Justin Kerswell says, “Consumers need to realise that badgers are to be killed just to provide their daily pinta. In other words, buying dairy products kills badgers. If people are disgusted by this decision to massacre British wildlife then they must send a clear message to the farming industry and politicians by dumping dairy.

“What is so frustrating is that the TB epidemic in cattle is not driven by badgers, it is a mess of the industry’s making coupled with the incompetence of politicians. Rather than take their mistakes on the chin farmers have been willingly sold a lemon. Badgers will suffer immeasurably as shots ring out across the English countryside and farmers are simply pursuing a policy that is going to make matters worse by spreading the disease further. It’s a lose-lose scenario fuelled by blinkered thinking and a rotten self-protectionist policy by the coalition Government.”

Notes for editors

For more information about this media release, contact Justin Kerswell by emailing justin@viva.org.uk or calling 0117 944 1000 or call the press office on the same number.

(1) No figures seem to exist for the average spend on dairy throughout the UK, but in Ireland the average yearly spend per household was €774 (£662) in 2008 (Source: The Meat Site). 2,069 people have so far signed the Viva! petition, which could cost the English dairy industry around £1,369,678 this year alone.

The legal challenge was made by The Badger Trust.

More information on badger ‘culling’ and Viva!’s campaign is available at http://www.viva.org.uk/badgers

Viva!’s online petition to boycott dairy can be found at http://www.viva.org.uk/campaigns/badgers/England.php

Help on swapping from dairy to plant-based milks (such as soya, rice or oat) can be found at www.viva.org.uk/goingvegan/index.php

The Government in England has authorised two trial ‘culls’ of badgers in the Autumn, which could be followed by more widespread ‘culling’ of badgers from 2013. The Government admits that only a 12-16 per cent reduction in TB incidences over 9 years is achievable by killing badgers, which shows the majority vector for infection must lie elsewhere. Wales rejected badger ‘culling’ earlier this year, whilst Northern Ireland recently announced a trial of trapping and vaccinating healthy badgers.