The badger cull: Should we just eat them instead?

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With bovine tuberculosis threatening many a farm that supplies us with milk and cheese, the new Environment Secretary, Owen Paterson, has issued a licence for a badger cull to go ahead over 300sq km of Gloucestershire land. As the Save Badgers from Culling petition attracts thousands of signatures, Clarissa Dickson Wright says we should just eat the creatures instead.

The former star of TV's Two Fat Ladies said she enjoyed eating badgers when she was younger. But her comments were put Under Pressure by badger campaigner Brian May.

Although badgers have recently come under scrutiny amid fears they may spread tuberculosis to cattle, the scientific evidence doesn't back up how effective a cull would be. Professor John Krebs, who ran a badger-culling trial, said that such tactics were "ineffective" and reduced the rates of TB in cattle by only 16 per cent.

Some suggestions for dishes include badger pie, badger soup, badger salad, badger soufflé, badger milkshake and badger con carne.

May apparently said it's not like the badgers want to Live Forever, they just Want to Break Free and not Bite the Dust, also that all this talk of badger-eating is simply Ga Ga.