Dr Brian May, the legendary Queen guitarist, speaks up for animals at every opportunity he can - writes Julia Stephenson. When I hosted the launch of the Green Party animal welfare manifesto at my flat, we were thrilled when he turned up to offer his support. Modest and unassuming, he deflects the attention he attracts towards causes close to his heart.

 

Most recently he has been campaigning tirelessly to stop the Government's ill-advised badger cull. His e-petition attracted over 166,000 signatures (a good argument for signing all those petitions on subjects we care about), and was responsible for Parliament delaying the badger cull – but only until next year – so the battle goes on.

His campaign has attracted some negative publicity, but as Winston Churchill said, "You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, some time in your life." But sometimes he must feel that James Goldsmith had it right when he said, “No good deed goes unpunished.”
 

Brian is calling for vaccination of cattle rather than a cull and says: "All the science told us that badger culling isn't the right solution”.
 

On his website brianmay.com he says: "I’m not an extremist. But I am utterly opposed to pointless and wanton cruelty. Understanding of our responsibility towards animals begins with small things. It begins with the realisation that killing to solve a problem is never the answer."
 

Many farmers resist the cull. David Purser, who owns a farm near Cheltenham, says there is "no justification" to shoot the creatures in a bid to stop the spread of bovine tuberculosis among cattle.

 

Call for change: Farmer Dave Purser is against the badger cull

Mr Purser, who has kept his own cattle since the 1980s, insists culling is not the answer, and calls for new legislation on vaccinating cattle to be pushed through.

"In every other instance where disease threatens our cattle we have vaccination in our armoury," he says.
 

"We know that vaccines reduce the incidence of disease in our cattle and this gives us scope to use our own skills to manage the health and welfare of our herds to suit our particular circumstances.
 

"We are only denied this essential approach with bovine TB because of an outdated EU directive governing export which insists on 'accelerated eradication' of the disease and simultaneously bans the use of cattle vaccine.
 

"Even the casual observer can see that the answer to this issue is to challenge the EU and get the rules changed to allow cattle vaccine – hence the huge and justifiable public outcry in opposition to a massacre of our badgers."
 

Mr Purser says that sensationalising the figures on how widespread bovine TB was had blurred the debate.
 

He adds: "Cases of bovine TB have not risen dramatically. There is no epidemic.
 

"Farming bodies should avoid a PR disaster by abandoning the badger cull."
 

Steve Jones, [http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/28/badger-cull-bovine-tb] who farms in the Forest of Dean, says: “Killing badgers isn't the long-term or sustainable solution to bovine TB control that farmers so desperately need. Shooting badgers is politically motivated, not scientifically driven, and farmers need to realise they're being sold a lame duck. We need to improve cattle welfare. Farm animal stress caused by pain and suffering can reduce an animal's immunity and make it more susceptible to diseases like bovine TB. On too many farms there are high levels of lameness, mastitis and rough animal handling. The average incidence of lameness in our national herd is a shameful 22%.
 

"This is lazy husbandry. We have a wealth of veterinary knowledge to eradicate disease, and in countries with more advanced control measures there are very low incidences of bovine TB.”
 

Thanks to Brian May, the badger cull received a huge amount of publicity. I love it when celebrities stick their necks out for causes they believe in.

 

Three cheers for Richard Gear and his excellent campaign to draw attention to the abuses perpetrated by the Chinese in Tibet. Similarly, Joanna Lumley is a tireless campaigner. She does so much charity work you wonder how she fits in anything else.
 

Ricky Gervais is another animal lover who campaigns to end animal vivisection. An unfashionable subject but one that desperately needs support. Good for him!
 

We live in a celebrity obsessed age, with magazines, websites and newspapers crammed with the often tedious goings-on of actors and entertainers. It always strikes me as odd that so few of them use this attention for much else than promoting their own celebrity and image.
 

The 1960’s and 1970’s were the age of The Cause, with the West’s youth united in a battle for peace, freedom and racial and sexual equality. (Remember all those marches supporting CND, Women’s Lib, Greenham Common, and against the Vietnam War?)
 

Yet the dawning of the new century has witnessed a mass apathy, a decline of interest in much else beyond our own navels. The only thing that gets today’s youth out on the streets marching is to protest about having to pay for their own university education.
 

I hope the tide will turn and that more celebrities will be inspired by those in the public eye who use their lives in such a positive way.