Releasing lynx into the wild would be a disaster for farms

You'd be forgiven for thinking it was an imaginative, if not bloodthirsty, way to get rid of farmers protesting against the new inheritance tax rules. Last month, the Lynx UK Trust, an organisation that campaigns for the reintroduction of wild Lynx to areas of rural

- RICHARD BENSON

Britain, formally applied to reintroduce the cats to the Kielder Forest in Northumberland.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs promptly refused, on the grounds that lynx are classified as dangerous wild animals. But then the head of the government’s wildlife regulator stepped in.

Tony Juniper, chair of Natural England, said he personally was “enthusiastic” about reintroducing wild lynx to Britain - and would be “absolutely delighted” if it could be achieved during his two-year term. In rural east Yorkshire, where I work, this was met with a degree of eye-rolling. People in agriculture have been aware of the proposals for a while, but until now, no one has taken them seriously. That has shifted a notch to: “They couldn’t... could they?”

I do not work in agriculture, but my dad’s family were tenant farmers, smallholders and contractors. My brother works on an arable farm on the Yorkshire Wolds, and I meet a lot of people in the industry.

Politically, I always find myself caught in the middle ground. I think farmers moan too much and are too resistant to change, and I think too much farm and conservation policy is made by experts who give a good impression of not really knowing what they’re doing. In this case, you have to say the reintroduction of the lynx to the wild in Britain would cause many problems for farmers - although it’s not all about farms and the cats themselves.