An anti-badger cull ad from the RSPCA has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority for misleadingly suggesting the government planned to “exterminate” badgers.
The press ad, which ran in the Metro newspaper in June, carried the headline “Vaccinate or Exterminate?” and stated “the UK government wants to shoot England’s badgers. We want to vaccinate them – and save their lives”.
The RSPCA said it had used the word “exterminate” carefully and deliberately, and argued although its literal meaning was that of total eradication, it was commonly used to refer to “killing on a massive scale”. As the government had planned to cull at least 70% of badgers during its pilots in Somerset and Gloucestershire, the word “exterminate” was appropriate, it added.
However, the ASA said the general public was unlikely to be aware of the 70% target and was therefore liable to misinterpret the claim, and banned the ad for being misleading.
The ASA received 119 complaints about the ad – from MP Simon Hart, Welsh shadow minister for rural affairs Antoinette Sandbach, the Farmers’ Union of Wales and 116 members of the public.
The complainants challenged the ad on four grounds in total, including for suggesting vaccination was a viable alternative to culling, but the ASA only upheld the complaint about the use of the word “exterminate”.
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The RSPCA said it was pleased the ASA dismissed three out of the four areas of complaint, but “respectfully disagreed” with its ruling on the word ”exterminate”. “The advert referred to the fact that removing more than 70% of the badger population in the cull areas of Gloucestershire and Somerset is a virtual eradication of a much-loved species in these areas. We still believe the word ’exterminate’ accurately describes this and that the public would have been aware at the time of the plan to eradicate 70% of badgers,” a spokesman said.
“These are facts which were reported in the majority of the media at the time, as well as our own press statements, and public awareness of these facts was widespread.
“We still believe the word ‘exterminate’ accurately describes this and that the public would have been aware at the time of the plan to eradicate 70% of badgers”
RSPCA
“We sympathise with farmers over bovine TB in cattle, and care as much about cows as we do about badgers but share the views of leading scientific experts that a cull would be of little help in eradicating bovine TB in cattle and could even make it worse in some areas.”
A spokeswoman for Defra did not comment directly on the ASA ruling but stressed the culls had been designed to prevent the total eradication of badgers. “The culls were carefully designed and monitored to make sure there is absolutely no risk of local extinction to the badger population. Nobody wants to cull badgers, but scientific evidence shows that culling badgers in areas where disease is widespread helps reduce cases of TB in cattle.”
The Farmers’ Union of Wales welcomed the ASA’s ruling but said the ad was a symptom of what it claimed was the RSPCA’s increasing tendency towards extremism and “aggressive and threatening” lobbying, and it was now time for the Charity Commission to take action.
NFU director of policy Martin Haworth said: “We are pleased that the Advertising Standards Authority has ruled the RSPCA’s ad must not be used again. The advert was misleading and did little to help provide genuine understanding of this complex issue. We have always said the RSPCA has a legitimate role to play in animal welfare but we believe its campaign against the badger cull is misconceived, especially when you consider 38,000 cows were killed last year alone because of TB.
“The science shows that culling badgers can reduce TB incidence in cows and we don’t understand why the RSPCA, which accepts wildlife management in other contexts, is opposed to this wildlife management policy which is designed to prevent the spread of this awful disease.
“We hope the ASA ruling will encourage the RSPCA to be more careful how it communicates to the public about this complex issue. TB is a disease which needs eradicating from cattle and wildlife in England, and we hope eventually there will be a time when neither cattle nor badgers are killed because of the disease.”
Updated at 16.10 on 11 December 2013 to include comment from the NFU.
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