Britain plans to kill as many as 20,000 badgers in several hot spots for bovine tuberculosis over the next four years. But the move is facing stiff internal opposition. Signatories to the Bern Convention on wildlife protection in Europe had voted to @4nvestigate whether the experimental cull violates three articles of the treaty, and to ask Britain to stop@,the killings for a year. However, the cull, which aims to reveal whether killing the badgers reduces bovine tubercu- losis, went ahead in the North Devon region in December 1998.