Brian May to release ‘The Badger Song’ ahead of planned government cull

Queen guitarist Brian May has announced plans to release ‘The Badger Song’ in protest at the government’s plan to cull badgers.

The song is designed to raise awareness of the cause, and alert people to government plans to make killing badgers legal from June 1 in a bid to to reduce tuberculosis in cattle. Speaking at a public meeting in Taunton, Somerset on Saturday (April 20) May said: “It’s a kind of parody of ‘Flash (Gordon)’, as you’ll see.” He added “We’re gonna get Brian Blessed saying, ‘We need badgers alive!'” Brian Blessed has tweeted about the plan as well, saying he is ‘thrilled to be involved’.”

As well as Brian Blessed, the song will also feature ‘Badgers’ by Jonti Picking, an animator who achieved viral fame with his song in 2008. Scroll down to hear a preview of the song and hear May speaking about the project now.

Badgers are currently under threat after farmers in England were given a licence to shoot them in a bid to reduce tuberculosis in cattle for the first time in Gloucestershire. “The disease comes from cows, it doesn’t come from badgers,” May has previously explained. “It’s a very unfair situation. Badgers have been the scapegoat for years and years and farmers have been killing badgers for many, many years now.” Ministers hope the licences and the death of an estimated 100,000 badgers will help curb the scourge of TB in cattle, which led to 26,000 cows being slaughtered in 2011.

Source: NME