Dilemma over badger cull
THE sound of the fox-hunting horn has fallen silent but England's hillsides may soon echo to the ear-splitting cry of the vuvuzela.
The most irritating instrument on earth will be deployed by animal rights activists in a bizarre bid to wreck the Government's planned badger cull.
Not since fox-hunting for sport was banned in 2004 have town and country been as divided as this on a single issue.
On one side stands the National Farmers' Union, which backs the Government's pilot six-month shooting cull in Gloucestershire and Somerset to combat bovine tuberculosis, spread by badgers.
On the other side stands the animal rights lobby, which wants Westminster to follow the Welsh lead and opt for a badger vaccination programme.
The previous government, at a cost of £50million and the lives of 11,000 badgers, concluded a cull made "no meaningful contribution" to curbing bovine TB.
With or without vuvuzela-wielding protesters, it is hard to see how this one will prove any more effective.