Badger Trust urges an end to the cull as government declares ‘open season’ on badger cubs
- Badger Trust Staff Team
- Jun 7, 2023
- 3 min read
By issuing eleven new supplementary cull licences, DEFRA reveals that the controversial badger-killing policy is nowhere near over.
New figures released today from Natural England show 29 zones have been issued with supplementary cull licences to kill badgers untested for bovine TB (bTB). As a result, 11 new zones ranging from Cornwall to Cheshire have now been issued with supplementary cull licences. DEFRA-sponsored public body, Natural England, has also authorised licence holders to resume badger killing in a further 18 existing supplementary cull areas.
This new data reveals that between 1st June 2023 and 31st January 2024, as many as 29,000 badgers could be killed in supplementary cull areas alone, mostly in the South West and West Midlands. DEFRA has called this time ‘open season’ for culling badgers, including this year’s cubs, who can be as young as four months old as the killing starts.
The future of the badger is now seriously under threat, especially in areas of Gloucestershire, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. And culling resumes at a time when new cubs are just starting to venture further from their setts.
Just 15% of people in Britain support the badger cull, yet last year, over 33,000 badgers were killed in the cull in England. 88% of these badgers were killed using free-shooting methods, considered an animal welfare abuse and deemed unsuitable for use as a culling method at the start of the cull.
Peter Hambly, Executive Director of Badger Trust, said:
"The first thing many of this year’s new badger cubs will see when they come out of their sett is the barrel of a gun.
At the same time as we say we want to be more nature-friendly by 2030, we are killing our native wildlife on a daily basis – to the brink of extinction in some areas of England. All this when the evidence overwhelmingly points to cattle-to-cattle transmission as the primary spreader of bovine TB.
The badger cull is the most toxic wildlife management strategy in Britain’s contemporary history. To kill half of our badger population under these circumstances is a wildlife catastrophe.”
Over 210,000 badgers have been culled since 2013 in a failed bid by DEFRA to eradicate bTB in cattle. Evidence produced by DEFRA itself failed to prove badger culling reduced bTB in cattle. The evidence overwhelmingly points to cattle-to-cattle transmission as the primary infection route.
In Wales and Scotland, badgers are not killed; instead, they prioritise cattle-focused measures such as restricting movements. Both countries have had more success with bTB reduction than England. In England, it is cattle-focused methods that bring results. Badger culling does not affect the bTB rate, but the government persists to the point that half the badger population may have been killed.
This table sets out the areas, the number of badgers to be killed (minimum and maximum numbers are stated as part of the licence conditions), and what year of supplementary culling the county area is in. Taken from Natural England.
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