AN animal rights campaigner from Aberporth has hit out at Ceredigion County Council leader Ellen ap Gwynn after she refused to meet to discuss council support for a proposed badger cull.

West Wales Animal Aid had approached councillors, including Cllr ap Gwynn, to ask to discuss issues around a badger cull and the reasons why the council voted to support a motion backing such a cull.

But after Cllr ap Gwynn rejected a meeting, saying “there would be no point”, Mark Franchi, Aberporth-based spokesman for the group, said they were “dismayed” at the response.

He said: “The leader of Ceredigion County Council, Ellen ap Gwynn, has refused to meet with West Wales Animal Aid group to discuss a proposed badger cull.

“Recently the council has voted to support a badger cull in Wales. Animal Aid view this as completely unacceptable. We would ask that Ceredigion Council immediately reverse the shameful vote.

“In the last year over 1,000 badgers in England have died in a hopeless attempt to control bovine TB. The only way bovine TB will be controlled is by a vaccination programme of badgers and cattle and a radical improvement in the standard of welfare of dairy cows.

“Our dairy cows are under constant stress to produce milk which suppresses their immune system and makes them vulnerable to TB.”

Cllr ap Gwynn said she had replied to them by e-mail and also had a lengthy phone conversation, so didn’t feel that a further discussion was warranted.

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