Brian May's long-running campaign to stop a cull of badgers has become a success. The British government announced yesterday (Nov. 29) that they have put an end to the practice in Gloucester.

Earlier in the week, according to Vintage Vinyl News, the Queen guitarist/astrophysicist/animal rights activist filed an "extremely urgent" High Court Judicial Review Claim through his Save Me organization. In the motion, the group said that an eight-week extension of the mass slaughter, which had been granted in October by Natural England, was "unreasonable" and ran contrary to their scientific advisor's advice. Despite the court originally ruling against May, the National Farmers Union, who were behind the cull, gave in to May and said that it will end immediately, three weeks ahead of schedule.

May's campaign to stop the badger cull began in August 2012, when he wrote a piece in the Daily Mail saying that the cull would have little impact on stemming the outbreak of bovine tuberculosis in Somerset and Gloucester. Earlier this year, he recorded a track with Slash called 'Badger Swagger' to raise awareness of their plight.

In a statement on Save Me's website, May said, "Now that the failure of this whole shameful badger cull shambles can be seen so clearly seen, in spite of many moves of the goalposts, it must be time to abandon the concept, and get on with the only strategy which can ultimately succeed in eradication of bovine TB - vaccination of badgers and other wildlife, and prioritisation of work to license the vaccine for cattle. The whole country will get behind this: David Cameron only needs to press the button."