The slaughter and misinformation behind it continues – over 230,000 badgers killed
- Badger Trust Staff Team
- Apr 11, 2024
- 2 min read
In some areas of England, the government can’t find any more badgers to kill.
Government figures released today show that they killed 19,570 more badgers in 2023 as part of the government-led cull. This figure takes the total number of protected badgers killed since 2012 under the policy to 230,125.
In many areas, particularly in heavily culled parts of Cornwall, Devon and Dorset, shooters found it hard to reach anywhere near their minimum kill targets – they simply didn't find the badgers. This chilling reality of the effect of mass badger killing underlines what was submitted to the Bern Convention—that we are in danger of local extinction in England’s cull areas, and badger populations are not recovering.
The evidence keeps pointing to cattle measures being the answer—the government has never shown that just shooting badgers cuts bovine tuberculosis (bTB), which the authors of Defra’s own studies repeatedly make clear.
What evidence does Defra have of a causal link between culling badgers and reducing bTB in cattle? Badger culling has always taken place alongside more effective on-farm cattle measures, such as restricting cattle movements, improving biosecurity, and better cattle testing—measures that do work. 94% of bTB spread is due to cattle. Without mandatory cattle measures, the cycle of bTB infection in farmed cattle will continue regardless of how many badgers are culled.
Defra's latest consultation on “badger control operations” that closes on 22 April does not stack up—they've killed over 230,000 badgers and barely tested any. Yet, cattle are only slaughtered when they test positive for bTB. Cattle vaccines are being developed across the world, and they work, yet they delay their deployment. The government seems happy to spend more on killing badgers than developing the science that could bring bTB rates down. Their obsession with the badger continues, and nature always pays the price.
Peter Hambly, Executive Director of Badger Trust, said,
“The killing of badgers must stop. It doesn’t work in bTB control – it never has. Now, the government plans to kill even more with no end date, without the science case or business case to back it up.
When they can’t find the badgers to kill, you know we are near local extinction events. After 250,000 years of badgers on this land, we may be nearing the end of the badger in some areas.
This is a national nature scandal – let’s end the badger cull before it’s too late.”
