Thousands more badgers to be culled this year
The Labour government has published details of badger culling licenses that could result in the targeting of almost 40,000 additional badgers in 2024. These culls, across the High-Risk bovine TB area in England, will be in addition to the 230,000 that have been killed since licensed culling was introduced in 2013.
The licenses cover 20 ‘intensive cull zones’, which are on their third or fourth year of intensive culling, plus 26 ‘supplementary licenses’ extending the culls in zones which have completed four years of intensive culling. Badger populations in some of these latter zones are now being targeted for the ninth consecutive year, while other zones have been issued supplementary licenses for the first time.
The government has also published licenses for two new cull zones in the Low-Risk TB area in England, one in Lincolnshire and one in Cumbria, but has not released figures detailing how many badgers can be targeted.
Responding to the news, Born Free’s Head of Policy veterinarian Dr Mark Jones said: “This confirmation of the Labour government’s intention to ‘honour existing licenses’ condemns tens of thousands more badgers to a brutal and unnecessary death, and all for a policy that Labour itself described as ‘ineffective’ in its election manifesto.
“We were hopeful the new administration would come to its senses and put an immediate end to this cruel and ineffective assault on our precious wildlife. Sadly, it seems they have been persuaded to continue the previous government’s policy by farming representatives and DEFRA officials, who are determined to continue blaming badgers for a cattle disease problem of the farming industry’s own making.”
The Labour government has continued to sanction the use of ‘controlled shooting’ (targeting free-roaming badgers with high powered rifles at night) by the culling companies, a method criticised by the government-appointed Independent Expert Panel in 2014 and the British Veterinary Association because of animal welfare concerns.
Additionally, it has continued to endorse the same flawed methodology by which Natural England has been estimating badger numbers within the cull zones and setting minimum and maximum numbers of badgers to be killed for years, risking the gross overestimation of badger numbers and their complete removal from areas of the country they have inhabited for millennia.
The cost to the taxpayer of the badger culling policy over the past decade is estimated at almost £22 million, excluding policing costs.
Dr Jones continued: “The Labour government has indicated its intention to bring an end to badger culling by the end of this parliament. However, it seems determined to sanction the death of many thousands more mostly healthy badgers before it does so, risking the complete disappearance of one of our few remaining large mammals across great swathes of our countryside, at a time when nature and wildlife is in precipitous decline.
“Ministers and officials must be made to understand that keeping those within the farming industry and veterinary profession who support culling happy is not a legitimate reason to licence further culls. Bovine TB can and should be brought under control through more accurate cattle testing, strict mandatory cattle movement controls, and comprehensive and strictly enforced on-farm biosecurity measures.”
Born Free has consistently argued that badger culling is unscientific ineffective, inhumane and unnecessary, and that the cost to the taxpayer is unjustifiable.