Badger cull information
This page is a resource for badger cull information including ways you help.
“I’m rooting for the badgers all the way – and you !” Jane Goodall
Two easy things you can do to help:
- Join the Badger Trust
- If you live in Britain please write to your MP telling them how you feel about the badger cull. It doesn’t need to be a long email and will only take a few minutes. You can find your MP here.
“Thank you Ian, for drawing attention to this hideous injustice.” Sir Brian May
Brian May’s film about badgers and bovine TB can be seen on the BBC’s website here.
My image that has won wildlife photographer of the year people’s choice has been getting huge exposure around the world and I’ve done lot’s of interviews for TV, radio and newspapers. Thanks to Sky news for their coverage about the badger cull.
However there’s a much darker side to this image. I used to live on the edge of a town where semi-urban badgers thrived and they would come up to forage each night. A year ago I moved to the countryside in Dorset where badgers are being killed at such an alarming rate that they are already becoming locally extinct. Unless the badger cull is halted with immediate effect I fear we will only see badgers in England in urban environments in the not so distant future.
I’m proud to have become an ambassador for the Badger Trust whose work is invaluable in fighting the corner for our black and white friends.
I’ve written a poem called the Badger’s plea which is here.
Night-vison scopes are used in the badger cull which reveal every animal up to two miles away. The government claim that they are ‘only’ killing 70% of badgers in each area but they don’t even carry out a proper census. I’ve spoken to someone who used to work on the badger cull and he told me that every single animal they find are killed. There’s a financial incentive too as they get paid per dead badger. Labour promised to end the cull, but since taking power all they’ve committed to is that they hope to end it by 2029. That will be far too late which seems absurd for an animal that is supposed to be a protected species. If you care about this issue please join the Badger trust who are fighting this battle on a number of fronts including taking legal action against the government. If you live in England (Scotland and Wales don’t murder badgers) then please also write to your MP and tell them how you feel about this slaughter. You can easily find who your MP is here.
Badger cull directors revealed
Most of the people and farms responsible for the badger cull try and hide their identity often using unlawful methods of concealment.
History of the badger cull
Since 2013 over 230,000 badgers have been killed in England with taxpayers footing the bill of over £60 million. The first modern cull started in the late 90s as the result of a rise in the rates of bovine TB. But it ended in 2003 due to a continued rise of bovine TB and a subsequent review by the independent scientific group on cattle TB who found that ‘Badger culling can make no meaningful contribution to cattle TB control in Britain’. However in 2010 the then agriculture minister Jim Paice under pressure from the National Farmers Union and its president Peter Kendall decided to re-instate the cull. One of the many scandals of this cull is that this decision was driven by political expediency rather than scientific evidence as Mr Kendall needed a significant win at an election battle at the NFU. Utterly shameful and he now has the blood of nearly half of our badger population on his shoulders.
Labour new government inaction
Many people seem to think that Labour have stopped the cull as they certainly made this promise during their recent electioneering. All they have done is to say that they hope to end the cull by 2029. Not only have no culling licenses been revoked but they have issued some new ones in Cumbria recently. Shame on you Labour.
Cattle to cattle transmission
Roughly the same percentage of cattle are slaughtered each year as before the cull started as it’s made no difference to bovine TB. This is also a scandal for England’s dairy farmers who have been lied to by successive governments. Data clearly shows that cattle to cattle transmission is the primary source of Bovine TB. and that less than 5% of culled badgers tested are found to have high enough levels of TB to risk infecting cattle.
What is the solution ?
Wales have managed to reduce bovine TB without murdering innocent badgers. This has been achieved by effective testing, vaccinations and improved farm hygiene. These have led to 94.7% of herds in Wales TB free as of end of Dec 2022. Scotland has no badger cull and is largely bovine TB free. The badgers are innocent and this has to be one of the biggest scandals ever with English wildlife.
Protected species
Badgers are a protected species because of the extreme levels of persecution they face. In 1992, the Protection of Badgers Act gave badgers across the UK unrivalled protection. The National Federation of Badger Groups (precursor to the Badger Trust) was instrumental in bringing this legislation to fruition. Badger setts are also protected from harm under the Protection of Badgers Act, 1992. It is illegal to disturb, damage or destroy a badger’s sett, whether the act was committed intentionally or without knowledge of their legally protected status. This makes the mass murder of these unassuming animals by the British government even more shocking.
Why badgers are important in the eco system
Badgers maintain and regenerate soil health through foraging and sett building, and they help to disperse seeds through their dung. They create new habitats for amphibians, invertebrates and pollinators, small mammals, plants, and fungi, and their setts provide refuge for other wildlife. A common misconception is the badger’s perceived role in the demise of hedgehogs. It is a myth that badgers are Britain’s leading cause of hedgehog decline. These two species have lived together for thousands of years throughout history. Hedgehog numbers only recently started to fall, and the sudden and steep rate of hedgehog decline cannot be attributed to predation.“Pointing the finger at a single cause, such as predation by badgers or road casualties, likely misses the bigger, more complex picture,” says the British Hedgehog Preservation Society. Published data supports the view of a bigger, more complex picture of hedgehog decline. The number of hedgehog sightings recorded in the state of Britain’s hedgehogs survey fell dramatically between 2004 and 2015, showing that the population decline was sudden and sharp, a trend unlikely to be caused only by predation. In addition, rates of hedgehog decline were the same in areas where badgers do not live. Research has shown many factors contribute to hedgehog decline, and all of these factors are human-induced. I’ll end on a mum and baby badger coming to drink at my watering hole I’ve made for badgers, foxes and other wildlife at my Dorset re-wilding project.
