Public unaware popular English holiday destinations are in badger culling hotspots as summer starts
- Badger Trust Staff Team
- Jun 1, 2022
- 4 min read
Badger cubs targeted in latest free shooting cull zones as local badger populations risk collapse.
With the summer now in full swing, people across the country are venturing to popular tourist destinations across the southwest of England to enjoy the great British outdoors. Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and Wiltshire all boast areas of natural beauty, from scenic countryside to ancient woodland, areas which become popular tourist hotspots at this time of year.
Yet these regions are among the most heavily targeted by the Government's badger culling strategy.
Today, 1st June, marks the beginning of this year's badger cull season. However, whilst Defra claimed the phasing out of badger culling has now begun, they have announced a further ten zones for supplementary culling. As a result, Devon, Cornwall, Staffordshire, Gloucestershire and Somerset, areas which have completed their intensive badger culling, have now all been issued with supplementary cull licences alongside existing supplementary cull zones.
Badger Trust urges the public to be aware of the locations subjected to badger culling as licensed gunmen will be free-shooting at night in a bid to reach their badger kill targets. In some counties, these numbers surpass 7,500 targeted badgers, a kill rate aimed to be completed by gunmen in a 42 day period.
Peter Hambly, Executive Director of Badger Trust, commented:
Shooters are licensed to kill over 25,000 badgers and their cubs across these cull zones. This is at a time when four-month-old cubs are foraging further from their setts.
And, once again, Natural England has massively increased the kill targets – up 79% on 2021's licences. Taken with the 176,000 badgers already killed, this could take the total to over 200,000 badgers slaughtered since 2013. This is a national wildlife tragedy on an unprecedented scale.
Support for the cull is at an all-time low, and the evidence overwhelmingly points to cattle-to-cattle transmission as the primary infection route.
It is cattle measures such as testing, vaccinating, controlling cattle movements and enhanced biosecurity that will solve the bTB problem, not an obsessive focus on the iconic badger.
The scale of this badger cull is shocking and intensifying. These areas have already been intensively culled, and this latest cull could drive badgers to dangerously low numbers or extinction in some places.”
Although free-shooting of badgers was initially considered unethical on the grounds of animal welfare abuses, caged culling is now becoming much less common. In the initial cull trials in 2013, the government set targets that no more than 5% of badgers shot were to die after five minutes of being wounded. However, the Independent Expert Panel (IEMP), tasked with testing the methods of the badger cull strategy, found between 7% and 23% of badgers took more than five minutes to die after being shot. Therefore, it was deemed inhumane to shoot at badgers whilst they were free to run away, so Defra opted to dispose of badgers by caged shooting.
Yet Defra’s own figures reveal a strong upwards trend toward free shooting in most of its cull zones. In 2021, 88% of culled badgers were killed by free shooting, increasing annually from 48% at the start of the cull. Some scientists have theorised the move towards inhumane shooting over caged methods to be due to the badgers becoming “cage shy”. Excessive years of culling in the same areas had removed all badgers who were unafraid of cages.
Others, however, point to Defra’s reduction in kill targets. In 2021, Defra reduced the kill target (the number of badgers to be shot in each zone) part-way through culling for 34 of 38 intensive cull zones, which shows fewer badgers than expected were found in 89% of intensive cull sites. Furthermore, 59% (20 of the 34) still failed to meet the minimum of those adjusted kill targets. Therefore, it is highly likely that badger populations are on the brink of collapse in these areas – little surprise that farmers and cull contractors are resorting to free shooting in a bid to reach their target in areas of dwindling badger numbers. Despite cull licences lasting 42 days for each cull season, badger culling could be extended if shooters do not reach the minimum kill target. In 2021, Defra’s own records show that badger culling in intensive cull zones continued up to 63 days after the licence was issued (even for zones where the minimum kill target was achieved).
Badger Trust urges holidaymakers visiting cull counties to be vigilant in woodland areas and to be aware that there could be injured badgers nearby. If you see an injured badger, please report its location to your nearest badger group – visit https://www.badgertrust.org.uk/you to find your local group or ring Badger Trust on 01273 033440.
Further Information
Figures from Defra
Table 1: Summary of target maximum number of badgers authorised to be killed by county in 2022 Supplementary badger control areas (source Defra).
County | Maximum target number |
Cheshire | 408 |
Cornwall | 2789 |
Devon | 7757 |
Dorset | 4125 |
Gloucestershire | 1996 |
Herefordshire | 359 |
Somerset | 2820 |
Staffordshire | 2492 |
Wiltshire | 2596 |
Total | 25342 |
How you can take action for badgers
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