Badger Cull out of control as Government refuses to publish licence details

Badger Trust Staff Team
Oct 18, 2022
5 min read

Badger Trust questions ‘government secrecy’ after reports expose alleged licence breaches whilst Defra Ministers refuse to reveal cull zones.

“The badger cull is out of control. The government refuses to publish where licences cover or their 2022 badger kill targets. We’re hearing reports of horrific examples of alleged licence breaches. The situation is shocking, and Natural England needs to do its duty and stop this mess on animal welfare and public safety grounds. Tony Juniper (Natural England Chair) needs to make an emergency statement on the badger cull situation, confirm where the licences cover and take immediate action on licence breaches. “

Peter Hambly, Executive Director Badger Trust

The badger cull is an awful process – the pointless culling of thousands of badgers to stop the spread of the largely cattle-to-cattle transmission of bovine TB. The government’s stated aim is to ‘remove’ (kill) between 70% and 90% of badgers in each cull area and across most of the southwest of the UK. In 'low-risk areas, there is no upper limit. The decline in species worldwide since 1970 is 70%, as was recently highlighted by WWF and ZSL’s Living Planet report. However, in Britain, we seem to be intent on wiping out an iconic native species from swathes of the countryside in just ten years.

This year for the first time, Defra and Natural England have not issued where new intensive cull licences cover or what the 2022 badger kill targets are for all licences, new and existing. Yet we know the intensive badger cull started in some areas of England in August. Perhaps they do not want to highlight how few badgers are left to kill in these areas. Or maybe the total of badgers slated for slaughter is so high that local extinction is a devastating possibility. However, on animal welfare and public safety grounds, they must issue this information.

Reports of potential licence breaches are coming in from across the country, most recently from Cheshire and Northamptonshire. Reports state breaches may include putting bait near protected setts, storing scores of dead badgers in inappropriate places and ignoring biosecurity protocols. In some areas, it is unclear if licences even cover the reported activity – indeed, as the badger is a protected species, the whole activity could be illegal. We just don’t know, as the licences have not been publicly issued.

The only statement about the situation came this week with an email from the Defra Ministerial Contact Unit, which read:

"Thank you for your email of 20th September about badger cull licenses [sic]. I have been asked to reply.

Our planned publication of the licences authorising badger control operations for 2022 has been delayed. However it will be published on GOV.UK in due course.”

So Defra Ministers are fully aware of the delay in authorising publication. Yet they still allow badger killing to go on without informing the public that shooting is taking place in their area.

Why won’t the government release details of the (allegedly) ‘final’ badger cull licences? What is there to hide? With mounting scientific evidence pointing away from badgers, the lowest-ever public support, and millions of pounds of wasted taxpayer money, it’s no surprise the government finds the badger cull an increasingly toxic political issue.

To respond “...in due course” is unacceptable.

Without cull licence information, badger groups, animal welfare organisations and volunteers cannot easily monitor the health and welfare of badger populations. Nor can resources be directed to areas to find suffering badgers that have been inhumanely shot, but not killed, by largely unmonitored cull contractors.

Without cull licence information, Badger Trust cannot alert the public where they need to look out for wounded badgers needing urgent help to save them from unnecessary suffering. Or that there could be safety implications for them personally, especially in new badger cull locations.

Local reports indicate that cull zones have had government-licensed shooters free-shooting at night since late August to reach their badger kill targets. The reports illustrate the danger the government is imposing upon local residents as well as badgers. Right now, across England, thousands of badgers are being shot, yet local residents and badger protectors are being kept entirely in the dark.

Scapegoated, untested, disease-free badgers are paying the ultimate price for a failed government policy to end bovine TB.

What is the reason for the government’s secrecy?

“After ten years of badger culling, the question is, why is the government keeping these cull details a secret now?"

asks Peter Hambly.

"Is it a fear of admitting how many more badgers they plan to cull? Is it because they can’t reach their minimum kill targets as so few badgers remain in some intensive cull zones? Is it a growing lack of transparency? Or is it simply more incompetence from Defra?"

Whatever the reason, the situation is chaotic and dangerous. It demonstrates yet again that culling a treasured wild animal, instead of targeting the farmed cattle who are responsible for 94% of bTB transmission, was always the wrong choice.”

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