Conservatives to continue badger culling if they win the election

Badger Trust disappointment as Sunak confirms Conservatives will continue to cull badgers if they win next month’s general election.

Rishi Sunak has confirmed to a farmer in North Devon that “culls have to be part of the solution” to tackle bovine TB (bTB) in cattle. The admission comes after the party did not publish details of its plans for the badger cull in its manifesto pledge.  

Badger Trust is deeply disappointed that Sunak misrepresented the role of badger culling in reducing bTB in cattle.  Reductions in bTB occur because of a range of measures introduced to control the disease, including better testing and cattle movement restrictions.  Wales has reduced bTB in cattle by similar levels without culling badgers.

Speaking of Sunak’s admission, Executive Director of Badger Trust, Peter Hambly, commented:

“We are disappointed, but not surprised, that Sunak has confirmed that the Conservatives will continue to cull badgers in an unproven, unprecedented, and unethical attack on English nature.  As long as this assault on wildlife continues, we will remain in the bottom 10% of countries worldwide for nature depletion.”

He added:

“This announcement confirms that the Conservatives will continue to ignore the science, ignore the responses from the recent badger cull consultation, and ignore 85% of the English public who want to End The Cull”.

Badger Trust reported previously on the rise in anti-badger rhetoric that emphasises killing untested badgers rather than more effective methods of applying cattle measures to tackle the disease at its main source, cows. 

The Conservative leader’s announcement seems to have been fuelled by a report released earlier this year by researchers from the Animal Health and Plant Agency (APHA), a DEFRA organisation. The report cited a 56% reduction in bTB in cattle in areas of badger culling. Pro-cull campaigners and the media seized upon this statistic and widely shared it, including in this BBC article.

However, Badger Trust revealed that the report actually showed that bTB had reduced due to a range of measures.  The 56% figure was also used out of context, misleading the public because it did not show a 56% reduction in cattle bTB infections.  Instead, the number of cows slaughtered early each year has remained relatively stable at around 0.5% of the English cattle herd, barely shifting since before the cull started, despite the millions spent by taxpayers and individual farmers. 

This 0.5% figure is in stark contrast to the percentage of untested badgers slaughtered — over 230,000 animals, representing an estimated 50% of the population in England and Wales. 

In a call to whoever forms the next government, Peter Hambly said:

“Over the last 11 years, badgers have been killed to the brink of extinction in wide areas of England in a misguided and unethical attempt to curb bTB rates in cattle. This attack on nature is at odds with many of our national and international commitments on nature protection.

Any incoming government must stop the cull immediately before it’s too late for badgers.”

Further information

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