WE fully support the new group set up which opposes the Assembly’s barbaric badger cull.

Save the Badger says it presents a united front against a "cruel" cull to slaughter thousands of animals.

Ministers have said bovine TB is "out of control and unsustainable".

That’s something we strongly dispute.

We have said before that we believe the Assembly decision to go ahead with a cull in West Wales short sighted and inhumane.

Given that Assembly officials say the intended aim is to be to reduce the badger population "as far as we can" over the next five years, it also seems to us to be completely over the top.

Badgers are to be first trapped and then shot in a pilot area of around 180 square miles in north Pembrokeshire and neighbouring parts of Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire.

A map of the area will not be published but it will take in 350 cattle farmers.

We have yet to see any scientific evidence that supports this decision.

Countless badgers will be killed in what is a severely flawed policy.

Show us the proper evidence which says killing badgers will stop the spread of bovine TB.

Only then can we say this is the right approach.

Until that evidence is forthcoming we remain of the opinion this is a senseless, barbaric act that is of no benefit to anyone and the Assembly has pandered to the views of the farming community without basing its decision on any scientific fact.