A BBC Panorama programme on the postponement of the planned badger cull in Gloucestershire and other areas has sparked a number of rows between the opposing camps. In the programme, National Farmers' Union president Peter Kendall suggested individuals within Natural England may have wanted the badger cull policy to fail.
The culls were postponed until next year after a survey showed there were considerably more badgers in the two pilot areas than initially estimated, making it impossible to achieve the desired proportion of kills.
Interviewed on the programme, titled Badgers: dodging the bullet?, Mr Kendall said the estimates put the NFU and the companies set up to administer the cull in West Gloucestershire and West Somerset 'on the back foot'.
He was quoted in the Farmers' Weekly as saying to presenter David Heap: "It is important that... Natural England has to demonstrate that within that big organisation there aren't people who said 'actually, we so dislike this policy we would like to see it fail. There is a view that there are some people who have not been as helpful as they could have been in delivering this policy."
In response Natural England stated: "We reject the notion that we have somehow deliberately sought to prevent the policy from being put in place. Natural England worked extremely hard with farmers and government to license badger control in the two pilot areas this year.
"Government policy rightly requires that detailed criteria are met in order that badger control can be delivered effectively, safely and humanely - and we worked rigorously over several months to ensure that the licences met these standards. We remain committed to delivering the policy and fully support the government's determination to eradicate bovine TB."
Comments in the programme from RSPCA chief executive Gavin Grant elicited a strong response from the NFU.
Mr Grant said: "The spotlight of attention will be turned on those marksmen and on those who give permission for this cull to take place. They will be named and we will decide as citizens of this country whether they will be shamed."
NFU director of policy Martin Haworth responded: "With these comments the RSPCA's chief executive Gavin Grant has overstepped the mark and in doing so confirmed our worst fears that the RSPCA is no longer a responsible organisation with animal welfare at its core.
"Mr Grant has actively encouraged people to identify farmers and those carrying out the badger cull pilots next year without a thought for their safety, their family's safety or the security of their homes. This is tantamount to inciting a campaign of fear and intimidation which I find wholly unacceptable and completely irresponsible.
"I am extremely disappointed with the RPSCA's approach, as expressed by its chief executive, to tackling what is one of the most serious issues affecting our beef and dairy herds today. This is not just a badger welfare issue; thirty-four thousand cattle were slaughtered because of TB in Great Britain in 2011.
"Rather than encouraging the targeting of farmers, the RSPCA would do better to focus its efforts on animal welfare across the board. The majority of experts all agree, a badger vaccination programme in isolation won't solve this TB crisis, and a cattle vaccine is still years away. In all its rhetoric, the RSPCA has failed to come up with a single workable solution to dealing with this terrible disease."