Queen's Brian May produces 'Badger song' for anti-culling campaign

Queen guitarist Brian May looked to his past on Saturday in his opposition to the English government's plan to cull the country's badger population, unveiling a song based on the group's title song for the movie Flash Gordon.

"It's a kind of parody of 'Flash,' as you'll see," May said during an appearance in Taunton, Somerset. "We're gonna get Brian Blessed saying, 'We need badgers alive!'"

The Western Daily Press reported that May got the idea for the song from animator Jonti Picking, whose "Badgers" video became an online hit in 2008. The unfinished track features touches of both Picking's original song and "Flash," with the chorus "Save The Badgers" mixed in with sound effects reminiscent of the Queen song and May's signature guitar riffs.

The English government plans to kill thousands of badgers in the country's southwestern region after June 1 in an effort to curtail the spread of bovine tuberculosis. A government spokesperson said 26,000 cattle had to be slaughtered in 2012 after contracting the disease. The BBC reported on April 6 that the plan calls for the badgers to be shot on sight, a departure from the standard procedure of trapping them.

According to The Telegraph, the government's chief scientific advisor, Sir John Beddington, said in March 2013 that a culling wouldn't yield positive results for four to five years.

"You have to wonder why the government is clinging to this policy that is not supported by science, not supported by the public, not supported by Parliament, and that will not help farmers," May said at the meeting on Saturday.

Blessed, who played the winged Prince Voltan in the movie, voiced his enthusiasm for the project on Monday via Twitter, writing, "THRILLED TO BE INVOLVED!"

Watch video of May's preview of the new "Badger song," posted online on Sunday by YouTube user "ajow2011," below.

[Photo by Mark Kent via Flickr Creative Commons]