Going Underground: A Visual Response to the Impending Badger Cull

LONDON, May 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

The Artful Badger in collaboration with Martin Usborne and Network for Animals (NFA) has staged an underground 'die-in' to highlight the plight of thousands of badgers due to be shot in England on June 1st.

     (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130520/613975 )

The die-in, a dramatic display of massacred beauty in symbolic locations of our city's underground, is a response to the Government's plans to shoot thousands of badgers in a misguided attempt to tackle TB in cattle. Just like the badgers who will retreat, wounded, to their setts to die, our 'beautiful badgers' echoed their distress in our underground world.

The cull is intended to tackle the problem of bTB in two pilot areas of West Somerset and West Gloucestershire before being rolled out across the country, despite the fact that evidence from a ten-year study of badger culling concluded this method would only provide a 12-16% reduction in bTB in a best case scenario.

The pilot culls will see mainly healthy badgers lured to bait points during the night and shot with high-velocity rifles. We call the efficacy and humaneness of this 'free shooting' method into question and wish to highlight the brutal reality of a cull which will see thousands of badgers injured or killed and cubs left orphaned underground in their setts.

Christina Dixon, Campaigner at NFA, says, "Many badgers will be killed outright, but others will retreat underground to die painfully in their setts. This wanton cruelty towards wildlife is not the solution. Effective biosecurity, improved animal husbandry and cattle vaccination are the only sustainable options for tackling bTB. Anything else is just a shot in the dark."

Further information:

The Artful Badger is a live arts and entertainment company providing bespoke events, using fresh and exciting experimental concepts to entertain crowds around Europe. 
http://www.theartfulbadger.com/

Network for Animals is a non-profit organisation founded by veteran animal welfare activist Brian Davies. Via the campaign site http://www.shootinginthedark.org NFA is involved in mobilising opposition to the cull and funding badger vaccination projects.

Martin Usborne is a photographer and blogger currently working on a project entitled 'A Year to Help' in which he is trying to save as many animals as possible in one year. http://www.yeartohelp.com/

Notes:

Additional professional photographs of the underground events are available featuring Leake Street and locations across the Underground

SOURCE Network for Animals