OVER 100 people turned out in Winchester to march against badger culls being carried out across the country.

Carrying banners that read: 'End the cruel cull now', people flocked to Abbey Gardens at The Broadway to begin their nearly two-mile parade as police stopped traffic to let them pass, despite the miserable weather.

They walked up St George’s St, along Jewry St, to City Road and Sussex St and back down along the High Street – in spite of the heaving city centre packed with Christmas shoppers.

Hampshire Chronicle:

Above: TV presenter Chris Packham took to the microphone in Abbey Gardens

Organiser Anna Dale said: “We have come from all over the country; some have even come from as far as South Wales and Gloucester. It’s the 27th march of its kind in over a year-and-a-half.

"We disagree with the badger cull because it’s against the advice of leading scientists. They have said the main cause of tuberculosis infection is cattle-to-cattle transmission. Culling has ignored public opinion. The most recent vote in Parliament was 219 votes to stop the cull against one.

“The 2013 cull failed to be effective or humane which means it won’t achieve its aim which was a very modest one anyway. A survey showed up to 22 per cent of badgers took more than five minutes to die.”

“The Government chose to shut down five out of six of the vaccine projects this country had,” she added.

“It’s cheaper to vaccinate badgers than to cage, trap and shoot them because you have got all the extra costs of policing and carcass disposal. If you shoot badgers you disrupt their social lifestyle. New badgers will just enter into that social circle.

“It costs £10 million in 2013, paid for by the taxpayer, and they failed.”

Hampshire Chronicle:

TV presenter and naturalist Chris Packham said: “I’m very pleased to come here because it’s in my own part of the country. I was born in Southampton and now live in the New Forest. We don’t have any badger culls in this part of the world but it’s important to reflect the public’s view and it’s equally important to do this here as it is anywhere else.

“Badgers are unnecessarily being culled so the message is care about what’s happened in your own backyard.

“It’s important we engage with the public in terms of developing their sincerity for wildlife and the environment. If we don’t look after it, it’s going to harm us and we’ve already seen that happen in other parts of the world this week with the likes of the snow in Buffalo in New York.”