Badger Culling

Badger Culling in the UK

Since 2013, the Westminster government has adopted culling of badgers under licence as part of its strategy to control bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in England, a disease which results in the premature slaughter of tens of thousands of farmed cattle each year. By the time of the General Election in 2024, close to a quarter of a million badgers had been killed across 72 licensed areas. Over three quarters were targeted using ‘controlled shooting’ a method considered inhumane by veterinary authorities and the government’s own appointed advisory body. The overwhelming majority of these badgers will have been perfectly healthy.

A comprehensive analysis of government data published in the prestigious journal Veterinary Record in March 2022, co-authored by Born Free’s Head of Policy Dr Mark Jones, found that badger culling has had no significant impact on the incidence of bTB among cattle herds. While bovine TB rates among cattle herds in England are slowly declining, similar declines have been achieved in Wales, where the government has not licenced badger culls, but has instead focussed on improving cattle testing, farm biosecurity measures, and cattle movement controls.  

In spite of this, the previous government persisted with the culls in England, which could result in badgers disappearing altogether across large swathes of the English countryside where they have lived since the ice age, with significant impacts on the wider ecology. 

While recognising that the impact of bTB and the measures aimed at controlling it can be devastating for farmers and their businesses and come at a significant cost to the taxpayer, Born Free opposes the policy of badger culling on the grounds that it is unscientific, and that culling is ineffective, inhumane and unnecessary. 

In its 2024 election manifesto, the Labour party described the badger culls as ‘ineffective’, giving us real hope that the new Labour administration would bring the culls to an immediate end.   

However, in August 2024, the new government announced its intention to phase out badger culling by the end of the current parliament, which could see tens of thousands more badgers being targeted over the next five years.  

Born Free’s campaign to end the cruel and costly culls must therefore continue. 

We work with partner organisations, veterinary authorities, decision-makers and the wider public to promote evidence-based wildlife management that focuses on minimising negative animal welfare and conservation impacts, and promotes alternative, humane approaches to bovine TB control that do not involve lethal wildlife interventions.