People News

Brian May named PETA's Person of the Year

Dec 31, 2012, 11:01 GMT

Brian May

Brian May has been named PETA UK's Person of the Year.

The legendary Queen guitarist has been honoured by animal rights group People for Ethical Treatment of Animals or his efforts to stop badgers from being killed.

A spokesperson for the organisation, Mimi Bekhechi, said: 'In his fight to save Britain's badgers, Brian May never backed down. He spread his message of compassion for animals through everything he said, wrote and even wore until the world sat up and paid attention.

'His tenacity and boldness are an inspiration to kind people everywhere.'

The 65-year-old rocker's charity Save Me launched the Team Badger campaign earlier this year, along with PETA and other animal welfare charities, to put an end to the slaughter of badgers by farmers, who are given license to shoot the furry creatures in order to prevent tuberculosis in their cattle.

Speaking about the campaign, he has said: 'The disease comes from cows, it doesn't come from badgers. It's a very unfair situation. Badgers have been the scapegoat for years and years and farmers have been killing badgers for many, many years now.

'All the scientific evidence that's been done - 11,000 badgers were killed in the ISG [Independent Scientific Group]'s experiment...and their conclusion was that killing badgers cannot meaningfully contribute to the problem of bovine TB in cattle. It's completely unequivocal.'