WILDLIFE campaigners in Bridport are hoping to persuade as many people as possible to speak out against a badger cull which has been proposed by the government.

The RSPCA shop in West Street has forms which members of the public can use to give feedback through a Defra consultation. The deadline for public comments is December 8.

Richard Lewis of the Dorset Badger Group said he was concerned that the proposal would allow farmers to shoot free-running badgers and would cause suffering.

He said: "Badgers are quite sturdy creatures and it is more likely that they would be maimed by bullets rather than killed outright."

The cull is proposed to reduce the risk of bovine tuberculosis in livestock.

Mr Lewis said: "The scientific evidence that badger culls reduces bovine TB is not very strong. The fact animal husbandry practices are so intense in farming is a far greater contributor to the risk and it is only when we see improvements in that area that the risk will reduce.

Group chairman Elizabeth James said: "The Government has already spent £50 million of our money on a badger culling trial, supervised by the Independent Scientific Group, and the ISG concluded it was not effective in controlling TB and in some cases made the situation worse. Improved cattle husbandry and the use of vaccination would solve the problem without the wholesale killing of wild animals."