Brian May’s upcoming documentary about badger culling is under attack for being ‘biased.’
The rocker took to Instagram to share his thoughts about the controversy. He shared a screenshot of an article about his documentary. “BBC is accused of being ‘biased’ for showing controversial Sir Brian May documentary about badger culling,” the headline of the article read. The rocker responded with a lengthy statement in the caption of his post.
“Hardly surprising that the Countryside Alliance want to stop you seeing our documentary – the result of 12 years research into how the disease of bovine TB is actually transmitted,” he wrote. “The CA’s remit, of course, is to try to ensure that blood sports continue, and they represent hunters and shooters. These are the very people who find employment killing badgers in the Cull Zones, and they get paid a large fee per badger killed. It’s easy to see that the CA has a vested interest in making sure the badger culls continue. To date around 230,000 badgers have been slaughtered in the UK. Imagine how much money is being made here.”
He added: “We can see also that they have a vested interest in TB NOT being eradicated. So it’s no wonder that these people would prefer that you didn’t see our film. Hopefully the BBC will stand firm. The documentary is scrupulously fair and honest, and it means a lot to me that the plight of the farmers is well and sympathetically represented.”
Since 2013, tens of thousands of badgers have been killed in England to stop the spread of TB to cattle and to eliminate the disease in the UK by 2038. The culling is highly controversial: wildlife campaigners argue it’s ineffective and ‘inhumane,’ while many farmers believe that reducing badger numbers is essential to protect their livelihoods.
In the documentary, Sir Brian will argue that badgers have been unfairly blamed and will discuss his role in a ‘ground-breaking four year experiment to eradicate the disease, and without harming badgers.’ He added that the documentary will ‘outrage viewers.’
May announced the documentary last week and it’s scheduled to be out later this month.