Slaughter and cull not the same

THAT the so-called badger cull cannot be justified is bad enough, but is made all the worse given that Ryan Hooper and Neil Lancefield remind us that the badger is supposedly a protected animal (“Protesters badger MPs about plans for culls”, News, 2 June). What is the government’s definition of the word “protected”?

Another word that cannot be justified regarding the killing of badgers is the word “cull”, yet it is used even by many of those opposed to the slaughter.

Cull and slaughter are two completely different things. It would be helpful if those opposed to the slaughter of badgers stopped referring to it as a cull.

Sandra Busell, Edinburgh