After many years of contentious debate, the government has confirmed that it will go ahead with a pilot badger cull in two areas of England in 2012. The culling method will be shooting by licensed farmers and landowners. Obviously for many welfare bodies, and a large proportion of the public, this is bad news. The Chairman of APGAW, Neil Parish MP, has expressed his views on the cull which are not on behalf of APGAW. Mr Parish speaks as a Member of Parliament for a rural area and a former farmer himself and is in support of trial culling. This comes as a surprise to many people as Mr Parish is a strong advocate for animal welfare but he is entitled to an independent view based on the information he has been given. Many other parliamentary members of APGAW have contrary views and we are very happy to ensure public views on this are related back to them.