FOUR animal campaigners fighting the Government's controversial badger culling programme have gone on trial in Hereford.

The four have been charged with smashing up traps on a Herefordshire farm where the animals were being shot to examine the effect on bovine tuberculosis.

Maximillian Gastone, aged 27, Carey Jurczyk, 42, Chloe Thomas, 21, and Jason Thomas (no relation), 30, all deny criminal damage.

They claim the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) was carrying out the cull illegally because badgers are a protected species.

It emerged yesterday that MAFF trappers could break guidelines to continue culls through a three-month close season, which starts on February 1 - when lactating badger sows and cubs were at risk.

Police witnessed three of the group stamp and break four wire-mesh cages costing £47 each at Netherwood Farm, Harewood End, at 9.30am on Friday, January 21, while Jason Thomas waited in a Peugeot car, magistrates sitting at Hereford Shirehall were told.

The cull was due to stop 11 days later until the end of April.

Trapper Mary Fernehough told magistrates badgers were lured into 3ft by 1ft cages with peanuts before a door dropped down.

The animals were later shot in the forehead to ensure instant death.

Under cross-examination by Keith Tomlinson, defending, Miss Fernehough admitted MAFF could break its own rules on culling.

"It's possible that badgers could be culled during the close season if you are told by your line manager," she said.

MAFF's Head of Bovine TB Division and ministerial adviser Roy Hathaway said the cull aimed to find out if controlling badgers would help reduce TB in cattle following Professor John Krebs' 1997 report, which found evidence of a transmission link between the animals.

Hugh Williams, prosecuting, said badger killing was banned by law, but argued that MAFF, as agent of the Crown, was not bound by it.

He added someone charged with criminal damage could justify the crime if protecting property - provided the use of force was reasonable - under the Criminal Law Act.

The case would hinge on whether a badger could be classed as property and whether there were alternative measures to prevent "an evil" being committed.

The case against Gastone and Jason Thomas, of St Helens Avenue, Jurczyk, of Vivian Street, and Chloe Thomas, of Port Tennant Street, all in Swansea, was adjourned until today.

Bovine Tuberculosis (TB) was a major problem in the 1930s, infecting nearly half the cattle population. Slaughter of infected animals and testing brought the incidence rate down to less than 1 per cent in the 1970s, but it has accelerated in Britain during the last decade. Last year, 6,890 TB-infected cattle were killed compared to around 3,400 in 1994.

Experts believe badgers could transmit the disease to cattle. They have selected 10 areas, including Herefordshire and Worcestershire, for special trials.

The culls, which began in November 1998, will run for five years, costing up to £35m.

Trials have been split into three: proactive, where as many badgers as possible are removed; reactive, where badgers are removed only once TB has been identified in a cattle herd; and a survey only.

Since the 1970s, around 30,000 badgers have been slaughtered by Maff, with a recommended limit of 2,500 per year. The total estimated population in 1997 lay between 250,000 and 400,000.

Ecological advisers to the Government say breeding will offset the effects of culling.

Farmers who own TB-infected cattle are compensated for their slaughter, but herds must undergo a 60-day "quarantine" where their movements are restricted.

Killing of badgers is banned under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992.

The Bern convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats has called for inter-European laboratory co-operation as an alternative to badger culls.