The Badger Cull: Killing Badgers for a Cattle Problem

Yet again, the government has defied its own scientific advisors and greenlit another wave of badger culling across England. Ignoring evidence, expert advice, and public outrage, officials are set to expand this failed policy, which is projected to result in the deaths of thousands more badgers. The latest expansion, authorised by Natural England against its own chief scientist’s explicit recommendations, will see supplementary culling commence immediately in nine regions from Derbyshire to Wiltshire, and additional culling in ten more areas beginning in September.

This latest move represents not just policy incompetence, but a brazen disregard for both science and morality.

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is a serious zoonotic disease primarily affecting cattle. While it's true that badgers can contract and spread bTB, the crucial and often conveniently ignored fact is that badgers account for only a tiny fraction of cases, just one in every twenty incidents of bTB transmission originates from badgers. The real culprits in the bTB epidemic are the cattle themselves, particularly the way farmers repeatedly trade and move cattle around the country. Each year, tens of thousands of cows are killed after testing positive for bTB, but the cattle industry conveniently shifts the blame onto badgers, diverting attention from their own practices.

Between 2018 and 2021 alone, approximately 40,000 cattle were killed annually in Britain due to bTB. Farmers, meanwhile, receive generous taxpayer-funded compensation, up to nearly £5,000 per animal, for each slaughtered cow. It’s no wonder, then, that powerful agricultural lobbies fiercely resist real solutions like vaccination and tighter biosecurity measures, favouring instead a politically palatable but scientifically indefensible cull of wildlife.

Natural England's own science chief, Dr Peter Brotherton, has explicitly stated that there's no scientific justification for this latest cull extension. Brotherton has repeatedly advised against supplementary culling, highlighting compelling evidence that killing badgers does not significantly impact bTB rates in cattle. His expert opinion, that badger vaccination, supported by improved cattle testing and biosecurity measures, represents a practical, humane, and effective alternative, has consistently been disregarded.

Badger culling isn’t just ineffective, it actively makes the situation worse. Research has shown culling causes surviving badgers to disperse more widely, potentially increasing the spread of disease across larger areas. This phenomenon, known as the "perturbation effect," has been consistently ignored by the government, despite decades of research indicating that killing wildlife does little to control disease spread and may actively exacerbate it.

Since the policy began in 2013, approximately 240,000 badgers have been killed in England, at a staggering cost exceeding £60 million of taxpayers’ money. Despite this massive investment, there has been no tangible improvement in bTB infection rates. In fact, after years of culling, bTB remains prevalent in cattle, proving unequivocally that badger slaughter is a grotesque waste of public funds.

The government’s decision to authorise continued culling is transparently political. Successive governments, Conservative and Labour alike, have bowed to farming lobbies rather than standing up for robust science or animal welfare. 

Prominent voices like wildlife campaigner Chris Packham, veterinarian Dr Iain McGill, and even rock icon Brian May have tirelessly highlighted the moral bankruptcy and scientific flaws of badger culling. Yet their arguments, grounded in rigorous scientific consensus, continue to fall on deaf ears.

Badger culling is barbaric. Animals are either caught in cage traps and then shot at close range or pursued and shot free-range in the dark, with thermal imaging and spotlights ensuring the badgers never stand a chance. No matter how competent the shooters, accuracy cannot be guaranteed. Many badgers suffer slow, agonising deaths from improperly inflicted wounds. Even those who die quickly have been killed needlessly, innocent victims in a ruthless attempt to appease agricultural interests.

This brutality is compounded by secrecy and denial. Culls are often conducted under cover of darkness, with minimal oversight and little transparency. The result: a grim, hidden toll of suffering and death justified by distorted claims of agricultural necessity.

Vaccination programmes for badgers and cattle, improved cattle testing, strict biosecurity protocols, and restrictions on cattle movements have proven highly effective in controlling bTB elsewhere. The Welsh Government, acknowledging these realities, has already chosen to abandon badger culling entirely, prioritising vaccination and cattle movement controls as superior solutions.

In stark contrast, the English government persists with its policy of mass slaughter. Their promises of phasing out culls have repeatedly been revealed as little more than empty gestures. While the government periodically announces supposed phase-outs and future shifts towards vaccination, these claims consistently mask expansions and licence extensions, as evidenced by this latest disgraceful development.

The elephant in the room, conveniently ignored, is the inherent risk and cruelty embedded in animal farming itself. The simplest, cheapest, and most ethical solution to bovine TB is the one agriculture lobbyists and politicians alike stubbornly refuse to acknowledge: ending the farming and exploitation of cattle altogether.

Dairy and beef farming creates the conditions for bTB outbreaks, with intensive cattle trade and close confinement amplifying disease transmission. If we didn't farm cattle, we wouldn't have a bTB crisis. The booming plant-based food sector offers abundant alternatives that neither harm animals nor fuel disease transmission, rendering culling obsolete.

The government’s decision to continue the badger cull is not just scientifically illiterate and morally indefensible; it represents a profound democratic failure. The vast majority of the public opposes these culls, yet politicians continue to bow to agricultural pressure, wilfully ignoring science, ethics, and public opinion.

Now more than ever, public voices must speak louder. Supporting legal actions, contacting MPs, amplifying awareness, and making individual choices that reject animal agriculture are powerful ways citizens can fight this cruelty.

Badger culling epitomises the failed, cruel logic of animal exploitation. It is a symptom of a wider injustice, our treatment of animals as disposable commodities. To truly solve bTB, we must confront the real cause: our reliance on animal agriculture.

The evidence is clear. The science is undeniable. The morality indisputable. It's time for this cruel, costly, and catastrophic policy to end. It’s time to vaccinate, regulate, and ultimately, liberate ourselves and our wildlife from a harmful system that profits from animal suffering.

Badgers deserve better. The public deserves better. It’s high time we demand better, no more badger culls.