Incredible badger cull news. I’m so happy to announce that the British government has agreed to end the badger cull in England by the end of January 2026. The only remaining culling license will be in Cumbria which the government claim (wrongly) that they need to keep to gather more data. Hopefully this is a permanent end to one of the biggest ever wildlfe crimes in England. Nearly a quarter of a million badgers were slaughtered during the cull In England at a cost to tax payers of over £60 million. Thanks to everyone who got involved in the campaign to end the cull. I was blown away by how much love there is for our black and white friends and so many of you sent me copies of your letters and replies to your MPs. Massive thanks go to Badger Trust , Protect the wild, Wild Justice and Brian May for all their tireless work on this issue. For more information about the badger cull see here.

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 Not only have no culling licenses been revoked but they have issued some new ones in Cumbria recently.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.