SIR — I would like to comment on your article on the badger cull (Free Press, September 28).

I have done some research on the subject which leaves me thinking that townsfolk are again telling country folk what to do.

There are several types of badgers all of whom have descended from the weasel family. There is no vaccine that will cure TB in badgers so, if those that are infected will die in a painful way anyway, therefore it is better to shoot them to save them suffering.

I cannot understand that we are told not to hunt foxes but to shoot them, so why not badgers? Badgers live in vast burrows, some of which have collapsed under buildings in which cases action has to be taken against them.

Badgers can't swim rivers, and when they try to cross motorways most of them are killed. This situation helps to prevent them quickly spreading over the whole country. Their main food is the earth worm that helps to keep our soil in good condition; not very helpful. It is obvious then that badgers although physically attractive, are a burden to the country.

Why do many people think that it is OK to kill cows but not badgers? The above says otherwise as cows provide us with milk, cheese and butter. If a cow is found to carry TB it is slaughtered and the farmer compensated, but not always to the true value that it may command. A farmer may have raised a pedigree herd over several years and it must be heart breaking to see them slaughtered.

The farmer cannot move any of the remaining cattle until they are found to be free of TB at the end of six months. This procedure is carried out continuously in this country to ensure that TB is controlled until a vaccine is developed to control it. I hope that throws a different light on the scaremongering.

J.A Walker,