"He is personally responsible for dehumanising badgers"

This weekend will see a group march on the site of Glastonbury festival in protest against badger culling.

Saturday September 8 will see the Somerset Badger Patrol get as close to Worthy Farm as possible to raise aware for their cause, and to take a stance against Eavis’ stance on culling.

“Michael Eavis has been given a platform in the past to give his views on badgers because of who he is, and they are completely unsubstantiated by evidence,” a anonymous Patrol member going by the name of Samantha told Somerset Live.

“He claims that he has no orchids on Worthy Farm, he claims they have reduced the amount of birds, he claims they are responsible for the nationwide decline in hedgehogs and bees, but there’s no evidence to suggest this.”

She continued: “With hedgehogs for example, all evidence says it’s our practises (human practices) such as the use of pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers and housing developments which are mostly responsible for the decline.

“He is personally responsible for dehumanising badgers, and as a past VP of Somerset Wildlife Trust it is unacceptable. That’s why we’re doing it at Worthy Farm.”

Earlier this year, organiser and farmer Michael Eavis spoke to the Daily Mail about Queen guitarist Brian May’s vocal stance against badger culling – arguing that the process is a fight against the impact that bovine TB can cause when cattle become infected. Eavis is also a vice-president of the Somerset Wildlife Trust, whose official position is against the badger cull.

“He’s a danger to farming,” Eavis said about May. “He doesn’t care about the badgers – he doesn’t know anything about it at all.”

Downton Abbey actor and animal activist Peter Egan then took to Twitter, where urged “compassionate fans” to boycott Glasto in protest.

Speaking to The Guardian about his support for culling in 2013, Eavis said: “If I thought for a moment badgers would infect my cows I know which side I’d be on.

“There’s a farm three miles down the road that lost 500 cows to TB. That’s the whole of his career, and his father before him, and his grandfather, just destroyed in one fell swoop.”

Emily Eavis recently said that they’re progressing well with the line-up for Glastonbury 2019, while Stormzy recently appeared to tease that he may be headlining. It has also been stated that the Legend’s Slot will be a ‘non-British female’ and that Paul McCartney is ‘top of their list’ to headline.

Amid reports that Madonna will headline Glastonbury 2019, other rumoured headliners for Glastonbury 2019 include Arctic Monkeys, ABBA, The Cure, Fleetwood Mac, Taylor Swift, Oasis and Kendrick Lamar.

Tame Impala also recently claimed that they would love to headline Glastonbury 2019 if asked.