Tyrrells Crisps boss in ‘firing line’ over badger cull

21-Sep-2015 - Last updated on 23-Sep-2015 at 15:13 GMT

The Tyrells boss has been targeted by anti badger cull activists

Tyrrells Crisps boss David Milner has found himself ‘in the firing line’ of direct action against the badger cull, after the anti-cull group Stop the Cull published his home contact details and invited supporters to contact him directly to protest against his alleged business links with a farm said to support the cull.

The activists urged their supporters to contact the ceo of the Hertfordshire crisp manufacturer at his Norfolk home to ask him to stop allegedly sourcing potatoes from Cobrey Farms.

The group claims Cobrey Farms was allowing marksmen to shoot badgers on its land on the border between Herefordshire and Gloucestershire in support of the government’s pilot scheme badger cull trials

According to the pressure group’s website: “One of Cobrey’s ex-employees has tipped us off that one of the company’s major purchasers of its potatoes is Tyrrell Crisps …”

'Happy to kill badgers’

The website continues: “So, if Cobrey are happy to kill badgers on their land and have the blood of badgers seeping into the soil, we’d like to know are their customers equally happy?”

Alongside a photograph of Milner standing in a field of potatoes appeared the message: "Tyrells: flavoured with badger blood. Please phone Mr Milner to stop purchasing from Cobrey.”

But the activists added: “Please do keep all communications polite…”.

The government has resumed the highly controversial practice of badger culling recently in a bid to tackle bovine TB, which last year resulted in the slaughter of nearly 33,000 cattle across Great Britain.

Predicted to rise to £1bn

The National Farmers Union (NFU) claimed the cull was an essential means of protecting both farmers’ livelhoods and animal welfare. The disease has cost the taxpayer £500M in England alone over the past 10 years, while costs are predicted to rise to £1bn over the next decade, it added.

“The role played by badgers in the spread of bovine TB is well known and widely accepted,” said NFU deputy president Minette Batters earlier this month. “Badgers are recognised a significant wildlife reservoir of the disease in areas where it is endemic. It is estimated that badgers contribute to up to 50% of cattle herd TB breakdowns in these areas.”

But numerous welfare lobby groups claim the practice of culling badgers is cruel and unsupported by robust scientific evidence.

In May 2013 the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) was accused of “bullying and hypocrisy”, after Freedom Food – its wholly owned subsidiary – wrote to farmers in the badger cull areas, warning those who allowed the cull on their land would be in breach of contract and ineligible to use its logo.

FoodManufacture.co.uk has asked Tyrells Crisps for a response to the activists’ campaign.