Tentative Victory for Common Sense as British Government Announces Plan to Curtail Badger Culling

The UK government, this week, announced plans to phase out badger culling, but this does not mean it will stop. The process will be introduced over a minimum period of four years during which time badgers will continue to die.

Badger culls were initiated in 2011 by the British government, and at least 100,000 have been killed since then. It is now understood that the badger culls contribute to the spread of TB: the culls drive them into previously uninfected areas.

Andrea Matthee, spokesperson for the Animal Survival International (formerly Political Animal Lobby), welcomed the announcement saying it was a victory for common sense.

“The truth is that the Conservative Party policy on badgers has never been rational. It’s a cynical sop to the farming lobby because the science is unequivocal: badger culling does not work.”

“Badger culling should be stopped immediately because if it continues for another five years, many badgers will die for no purpose whatsoever.”

The Godfray Report, an independent review of the government’s 25 year strategy to manage bovine TB, concluded that TB spreads more effectively between cattle than from badgers to cows. The report recommends the monitoring and management of transmission between cattle over the culling of badgers.