Join us in London on Tuesday 3rd September to call on the new Government to #KillTheCull.
England’s beleaguered badgers look set to endure further trauma and death, after senior figures in the new Labour administration confirmed that they would honour existing cull licences.
Lobby Parliament with us
Around 230,000 badgers have been shot since licenced culling began in 2013. Since that time, huge amounts of data have been produced, analysed and published. Legal challenges have been brought to try to stop the carnage. Serious concerns about the welfare of badgers, and the impacts of the mass slaughter on the future of badgers and other wild animals in our nature-depleted landscape, have been ignored.
Yet there is no convincing evidence to suggest that killing badgers actually reduces bovine TB in cattle.
In its 2024 general election manifesto, the Labour party said: “…we will work with farmers and scientists on measures to eradicate Bovine TB, protecting livelihoods, so that we can end the ineffective badger cull.” (Emphasis added.)
So, with the new administration came the hope that this more-than-a-decade-old travesty would finally come to an end.
However, so-called ‘supplementary culls’, licensed in May by Natural England against the advice of its own Director of Science, continue, and could result in as many as 30,000 more badgers being killed this year. And at a recent National Farmers Union reception, the new Farming Minister was quoted as saying that “the current round of licences will be honoured”, which could see culling continuing across great swathes of the English countryside for at least two further seasons.
Killing badgers has never been shown to be an effective or necessary measure in controlling the spread of bovine TB. The most recent scientific publication even undermines the flimsy historic evidence on which the previous government and its officials relied in their efforts to justify the policy.
That’s why Born Free will be joining our colleagues from The Badger Trust in London on Tuesday 3rd September for a National Day of Action Against the Badger Cull:
- On the morning of 3rd September, we will present petitions containing tens of thousands of names calling for an end to the cull to Defra Secretary of State Steve Reed MP at the Defra offices.
- From 11 am to 2 pm, supporters will gather in Parliament Square, where we will hold a peaceful demonstration against the badger cull.
- From 1.30 pm, supporters will enter Parliament for a mass lobby of MPs and call for an immediate end to the ineffective and unethical cull.
