Queen guitarist Brian May called England’s badger cull a “blood bath” in a recent social media post. On August 2, May shared several videos on Instagram that depict the musician heading back home after a trek.
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May is currently working on a new BBC documentary that focuses on the spread of illnesses throughout U.K. farms. It is not clear when the documentary will be released, but it seems as though May was working on the documentary during his recent trip.
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“And so returning home with another piece of the jigsaw puzzle,” May wrote in the post’s caption. “But at least hats off to Wales for looking for a humane solution. Sadly England is a blood bath. I vow never to give up until the Truth is recognised.”
On the same day, May posted a picture with Vivian, a farmer he befriended during his travels. “Saying farewell for now to Vivian at his farm in the Gower, South Wales. Vivian, a very decent and caring farmer, took meticulous care of his cattle, until one day, out of the blue, the whole herd failed the SICCT skin test for bovine TB, and he lost them all, along with his livelihood, and his family’s whole way of life,” May wrote on Instagram. “He and his wife have fiercely fought back, as you’ll see in the documentary we’re making with the BBC.
“But in the ten years since this happened, the situation has only got worse for cattle farmers, indicating that a massive rethink is required, focussing on transmission of the pathogen within the herd, instead of clinging to the notion that the problem in cows can be solved by messing with surrounding wildlife, and testing and removing cows using a completely unreliable skin test,” May continued. “It’s all been a tragic mistake, and the NFU, DEFRA and governments from Cameron onwards have catastrophically failed the farmers. We dare to hope that we can help put an end to this fiasco. If we can’t, all Britain’s cattle farmers can look forward to is more misery.”
May shared yet another August 2 Instagram post, which consisted of a video where he discussed the crisis affecting farmers in the U.K., as well as the unnecessary deaths of badgers. “The reason we are here …. On the search for TRUTH in the fight against bovine TB in cattle,” May captioned the third post. “One correction – to date almost a QUARTER of a million British badgers have been killed. And now back to making this documentary – today we are filming us speaking on camera with the farmer about his journey.”
Photo by Paul CHARBIT/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
