A CHALLENGE to the legality of badger culling in England was thrown out by the High Court today.

Ecologist Tom Langton argued that guidance issued last year by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), expanding the existing cull programme across England and allowing “supplementary culling,” was unlawful.

He also argued that culling was counterproductive, pointing to a June 2007 report which found that resorting to the practice in response to a bovine tuberculosis outbreak actually “worsened the spread” of the disease because badgers moved beyond the cull areas.