Eat badgers, says Dickson Wright

Broadcaster and food writer Clarissa Dickson Wright looks set to make fur fly after suggesting that Britons should eat badgers.

The former star of TV's Two Fat Ladies said she enjoyed eating the creatures - now a protected species - when she was younger, and believes people should consume the bodies of animals which are killed as a result of culling.

Her comments have drawn condemnation from Queen star and badger campaigner Brian May who dismissed her views.

Badgers have recently come under scrutiny amid fears they may spread tuberculosis to cattle, which has led to the issue of a cull licence in Gloucestershire.

Dickson Wright, who has championed country sports, said we should eat the animals.

"It would solve the problem. There's going to be a cull, so rather than just throw them in the landfill site why not eat them?" she said in an interview with the Press Association.

She went on: "There are too many badgers. It's very interesting - the reason at certain times of the year you see so many dead badgers on the road is that the badgers throw out their old and ill that aren't going to survive the winter.

"I would have no objection to eating badgers. I have no objection to eating anything very much, really."

May, who has spent many months mobilising efforts against the cull, was unimpressed by her "senseless" views.

He said: "I think we should seriously consider eating senseless people like this Clarissa whoever-she-is. She's obviously outlived her usefulness. I wonder if she would be best boiled or braised."