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| Badger campaigners lose Court of Appeal legal battle | Badger campaigners lose Court of Appeal legal battle |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Campaigners have lost a legal battle at the Court of Appeal over the culling of badgers. | |
| The Badger Trust had accused the government of letting the latest pilot culls go ahead without an independent expert panel (IEP). | |
| They asked three judges to rule there was a "legitimate expectation" that the expert monitors would be put in place. | |
| But Lord Justice Davis, Lord Justice Christopher Clarke and Lord Justice Bean dismissed their case. | |
| They backed an earlier decision by the High Court that ministers had not broken rules in permitting a cull without scrutiny by an independent scientific panel. | |
| In a statement, the Badger Trust said it was "disappointed" by the culmination of its three-month challenge but not surprised. | |
| The challenge arose from a decision to sanction a second year of "controlled shooting" of free-roaming badgers in Gloucestershire and Somerset as part of efforts to tackle tuberculosis in cattle. | |
| The government and farmers insist culling is necessary to tackle TB in livestock. | |
| This year's cull came to an end last week. | |
| BBC West's politics correspondent Paul Barltrop said: "It's thought marksmen achieved their target in West Somerset, but fell well short in West Gloucestershire." |