´óÏó´«Ã½

A high court judge has quashed a decision by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera) for a badger cull.

A judicial review was brought by the NI Badger Group and Wild Justice.

The legal challenge was granted at the high court on the grounds that the department's consultation was flawed.

Up to £35,000 in legal fees is to be paid by the department to the groups involved.

In March 2022 then agriculture minister Edwin Poots announced a cull as part of a strategy to tackle Bovine Tuberculosis (bTB).

The department's decision was met with dismay from a number of wildlife charities and campaign groups who claimed that allowing farmers to use rifles to kill up to 4,000 badgers a year would be inhumane and ineffective.

The NI Badger Group and Wild Justice claimed that a proper consultation on the strategy of the cull was not carried out, and a judicial review was granted on this basis.

Mr Justice Scoffield highlighted how the intervention involved highly emotive matters and a contested scientific backdrop over the proposal to cull a high proportion of healthy animals, which currently enjoy legal protection.

"The respondent failed to comply with the requirements of a fair and lawful consultation by failing to provide consultees with sufficient information about the basis for its proposed decision… to permit them to engage meaningfully with the department's thinking," he said.