Secret badger shoots pose 'a risk to public safety'

The government has refused to publish risk assessments of danger to the public during England's imminent night-time badger shoots because doing so "could have an adverse affect upon the health and safety of the public", the Observer can reveal.

The police have previously warned of the "clear potential for harm to public safety" but the location and timing of the culls remain a closely guarded secret, which campaigners say puts those vaccinating badgersor patrolling for wounded animals at grave risk.

Environment secretary Owen Paterson, who has argued against the shooting of foxes as an alternative to hunting with dogs, said: "It is highly unlikely that any government would wish to see a proliferation of rifles in the countryside."

The shooting of about 5,000 free- running badgers is set to begin at any time in pilot cull areas in Somerset and Gloucestershire. The culls are part of the government's effort to curb the rise in tuberculosis in cattle, which saw 28,000 cattle slaughtered in 2012 at a cost of £100m to taxpayers. But eminent scientists have dismissed the culls as "mindless"and warn that they may make matters worse as badgers flee the shoots.

Campaigners requested the publication of the risk assessments under freedom of information rules, but the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs refused, stating: "Disclosure of this information would impact adversely upon the protection of the public, e.g. from acts of sabotage, and could have an adverse effect upon the health and safety of the public."

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