Large conservation and wildlife protection charities such as Friends of The Earth, World Wildlife Fund, World Animal Protection and Greenpeace are largely ignoring the spreading badger cull as they have become larger and more corporate in their structure and approach and less willing to take on the powerful farming lobby and Defra over the politically sensitive issue.

This is the view of Dominic Dyer, chief executive of the Badger Trust, expressed in a new paperback book published this month” Badgered to Death – the people and politics of the badger cull”. In this he says it will be unforgivable if the corporatisation of the once-respected campaigning charities over the last 40 years results in the loss of the badger species from our countryside.