A group of animal rights activists staged a protest yesterday (Wednesday) at the Department of Agriculture office in Dublin over the TB eradication programme.

Members of the Animals Rights Action Network (ARAN) organised the “bloody” protest where the small group covered themselves in blood and called for Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney to cease the cull.

A spokesman for ARAN said: “Minister Simon Coveney has given a green light to the slaughter of 12,000 badgers to try to stop the spread of TB on Irish farms around the country … it has now been proven, in the UK, that culling of badgers is simply not effective and doesn’t deal with the underlying issue that is TB, a problem which Irish farmers have on their hands. We’ve been slaughtering thousands upon thousands of badgers since the 80s and we still have this problem”.