I think it is appalling that badgers across Sussex are facing being shot by marksmen to try to prevent cattle catching disease, especially as it is not only badgers that carry tuberculosis (TB). Deer also carry it for example, yet there is no mention of deer being culled, thankfully (The Argus, July 22).

The fact that farmers have been told and given authorisation by the Government that they can hire marksmen to eliminate badgers forces me to agree with wildlife charities when they say the Government will have blood on its hands if they proceed with this cull.

The culling of badgers does fly in the face of scientific evidence, making me wonder if this, what I think is a very cruel cull, really is necessary and justified?

The Conservatives, I thought, want to be perceived as defenders of the countryside and am surprised they want to see the badger population across Sussex reduced by 70%. They are, I think, greatly underestimating how much badgers are loved by people who do not want to see them needlessly culled.

Although the last badger survey carried out in Sussex was in 1998 and revealed there are estimated to be hundreds across the county, I fear they could be an animal of the past if we allow this cull to take place.

I think vaccination of the badgers should be a serious option looked into before the cull begins. I do not want to see men and women with guns walking across Sussex farmland shooting our wildlife.

I am delighted that Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas and my Hove MP Mike Weatherley are both against the cull and I hope they will make their voices loud and clear in Parliament on this issue.

Steve Fuller, Rowan Avenue, Hove

There are no badgers in New Zealand, yet they have TB in cattle.

I believe that it is our poor, overworked cows that succumb to this disease as they are forced to produce more and more milk.

In 1950 the average daily yield of a farm cow was three litres of milk. Today it is 40 litres. There has to be a price to pay for this increase – and it’s called bovine TB.

Why should our badgers pay the price for our greed for more and more dairy products and the relatively low price we pay for them compared with the 1950s?

Vaccination is the answer, not culling.

All the science points to this solution.

Sue Baumgardt, Stoneham Road, Hove

The badger cull is wrong, but so is eating meat, dairy and eggs.

Dairy and egg products result in tremendous animal suffering. The animals used to make these products live longer than “meat” animals. They are arguably treated worse. They end up at the same slaughterhouse, after which we consume their bodies anyway.

The dairy cow, for example, is continually forcibly impregnated to produce milk.

She becomes traumatised every time we remove her calf. These unnatural pregnancies cause her to suffer from excruciating udder infections.

Emma Richards, Halland Road, Brighton

A nine-year cull destroying 10,000 badgers and costing £50 million, has made no meaningful contribution to cattle bovine tuberculosis.

Perhaps the money would have been better spent on developing an effective vaccine to prevent the disease in cattle, instead of frittering it away on ineffective surveys and the pointless slaughter of our protected wildlife.

Graham Taylor, Uplands Road, Brighton