SECRET World Wildlife Rescue will continue to campaign for badgers to be vaccinated - despite a court decision this week to allow them to be shot.

Animal lovers were devastated when the Court of Appeal yesterday (August 11) turned down a case by The Badger Trust and moved to allow farmers to shoot badgers at night in parts of Somerset to combat cattle tuberculosis.

Secret World, based in East Huntspill, trained its staff to vaccinate the animals on three farms within the cull area of West Somerset towards Exmoor and charity founder Pauline Kidner heard the decision with a heavy heart.

Speaking from an International Conference on Bovine Tb in South Africa, Pauline told the Weekly News: “The appeal has only been lost on a point of law and the science remains indisputable that killing badgers will not resolve the TB problem in cattle.

“This is why we are seeing eminent scientists and celebrities voicing their concern. The recent film on Youtube with Sir David Attenborough and Simon King OBE narrating, to name just two well known people, clearly states the disaster that is about to happen.

“We will continue to campaign to try and make landowners see vaccinating of badgers is the way forward and finally, cattle as well.”

More than 2,000 badgers are likely to be shot in the culling experiment, which will begin within weeks.

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