Before 1992 down which gas canisters are thrown during gassing Many badgers in Europe were gassed during the 1960s and 1970s to control
rabies.
M. bovis was discovered in 1882, but until 1960, no compulsory tests for the disease had been brought in; previously, testing was voluntary. Herds that were attested TB free were tested annually and received a premium of 1d per gallon for their milk. Those not tested were able to carry on trading without testing. A programme of test-and-slaughter began and was successful. Until the 1980s, badger culling in the UK was undertaken in the form of gassing. By 1960, eradicating bTB in the UK was thought possible, until 1971, when a new population of tuberculous badgers was located in Gloucestershire. Subsequent experiments showed that bTB can be spread from badgers to cattle, and some farmers tried to cull badgers on their land. Wildlife protection groups lobbied Parliament, which responded by passing the
Badgers Act 1973 (c. 57), making it an offence to attempt to kill, take, or injure badgers, or interfere with their setts without a licence. These laws are now contained in the
Protection of Badgers Act 1992.
Randomised Badger Culling Trials (1998–2008) In 1997, an independent scientific body issued the
Krebs Report. This concluded a lack of evidence remained about whether badger culling would help control the spread of bTB and proposed a series of trials. The government then ordered an independently run series of trials, known as the Randomised Badger Culling Trials (RBCT). These trials, in which 11,000 badgers in selected areas were cage-trapped and killed, The incidence of bTB in and around 10 large (100 km2) areas in which annual badger culling occurred was compared with the incidence in and around 10 matched areas with no such culling. In 2003, as a result of initial findings from the RBCT, the reactive component of the culling where badgers were culled in and around farms where bTB was present in cattle, was suspended. This was because the RBCT recorded a 27% increase in bTB outbreaks in these areas of the trial compared to areas in which no culling took place. The advisory group of the trials concluded that reactive culling could not be used to control bTB. This was criticised by scientists, most notably in the editorial of
Nature, which implied King was being influenced by politics. In July 2008, Hilary Benn, the then-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, refused to authorise a badger cull because of the practicalities and cost of a cull and the scale and length of time required to implement it, with no guarantee of success and the potential for making the disease worse. Benn went on to highlight other measures that would be taken, including allocating £20M to the development of an effective injectable TB vaccine for both cattle and badgers, and an oral badger vaccine.
The Bovine TB Eradication Group for England (2008) In November 2008, the Bovine TB Eradication Group for England was set up. This group included DEFRA officials, members from the veterinary profession and farming industry representatives. Based on research published up to February 2010, the Group concluded that the benefits of the cull were not sustained beyond the culling and that it was ineffective method of controlling bTB in Britain. They said:
Post-2010 After the 2010 general election, the new Welsh environment minister,
John Griffiths, ordered a review of the scientific evidence in favour of and against a cull. The incoming DEFRA Secretary of State,
Caroline Spelman, began her Bovine TB Eradication Programme for England, which she described as "a science-led cull of badgers in the worst-affected areas". The Badger Trust put it differently, saying, "badgers are to be used as target practice". Shadow Environment Secretary
Mary Creagh said it was prompted by "short-term political calculation". The Badger Trust brought court action against the government. On 12 July 2012, their case was dismissed in the High Court; the trust appealed unsuccessfully. Meanwhile, the
Humane Society International pursued a parallel case through the European Courts, which was also unsuccessful. Rural Economy and Land Use Programme fellow Angela Cassidy has identified one of the major forces underlying the opposition to badger culls as originating in the historically positive
fictional depictions of badgers in
British literature. Cassidy further noted that modern negative depictions have recently seen a resurgence. In August 2015, culling was announced to be rolled out in Dorset, with a target of 615 to 835 badgers being culled there, while also being continued in Gloucestershire and Somerset. Licences were granted to allow six weeks of continuous culling in the three counties until 31 January. In December 2015, Defra released documents confirming the badger cull had "met government targets" with 756 animals culled in Dorset, 432 in Gloucestershire and 279 in Somerset.
Wales (2009–2012) In 2009, the
Welsh Assembly authorised a nonselective badger cull in the Tuberculosis Eradication (Wales) Order 2009; the Badger Trust sought a judicial review of the decision, but their application was denied. The Badger Trust appealed in
Badger Trust v Welsh Ministers [2010] EWCA Civ 807; the Court of Appeal ruled that the 2009 Order should be quashed. The Welsh Assembly replaced proposals for a cull in 2011 with a five-year vaccination programme following a review of the science.
The 2012–2013 cull (England) As an attempt to reduce the economic costs of live cage-trapping followed by shooting used in the RBCT, the post-2010 culls in England also allowed for the first time, "free shooting", i.e. shooting free-roaming badgers with firearms. Licences to cull badgers under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 are available from
Natural England, which require applicants to show that they have the skills, training, and resources to cull in an efficient, humane, and effective way, and to provide a Badger Control Plan. This meant that farmers were allowed to shoot the badgers themselves, or to employ suitably qualified persons to do this. The actual killing of the badgers was funded by the farmers, whereas the monitoring and data analysis were funded by DEFRA.
Aims A DEFRA statement, published in October 2012, stated, "The aim of this monitoring is to test the assumption that controlled shooting is a humane culling technique." The statement makes no indication that the cull would assess the effectiveness of reducing bTB in the trial areas. A Badger Trust statement indicated the 2012/13 badger cull had these specific aims: • Determine whether badger cull targets for each pilot area can be met within six weeks with at least 70% of the badger population removed in each cull area • Determine whether shooting "free-running" badgers at night is a humane way of killing badgers. • Determine whether shooting at night is safe with reference to the general public, pets, and livestock Again, the statement made no indication that the cull would assess the effectiveness of reducing bTB in the trial areas.
Concerns regarding free shooting Permission to allow free shooting for the first time during the cull of 2012/13 raised several concerns. • One suggested method to avoid endangering the public would be for shooters to stand over setts and shoot badgers near the entrances, but a report to DEFRA by The Game Conservancy Trust (2006) indicated that a major problem with shooting near the sett is that wounded badgers are very likely to bolt underground, preventing a second shot to ensure the animal is killed. Under these conditions, the first shot must cause the badger to collapse on the spot, limiting the choice of target sites to the spine, neck, or head.
Government announcement On 19 July 2011, Caroline Spelman, then the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, announced the government response to the consultation. It was proposed that a cull would be conducted within the framework of the new "Bovine TB Eradication Programme for England". In view of concerns in response to the initial consultation, a further consultation would determine whether a cull could be effectively enforced and monitored by Natural England under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992. The cull would initially be piloted in two areas, before being extended to other parts of the country.
Implementation In December 2011, the government announced that it intended to go forward with trial badger culls in two 150 km2 areas. These would take place over a 6-week period with the aim of reducing the badger population by 70% in each area. Farmers and land owners would be licensed to control badgers by shooting and would bear the costs of any culls. The government was to bear the costs of licensing and monitoring the culls. The government would monitor: • Actions taken under the licence • The impact on cattle herd breakdowns (becoming infected with bTB) within the areas culled or vaccinated • Humaneness of the culling methods • Impacts on the remaining badger population In March 2012, the government appointed members to an independent panel of experts (IPE) to oversee the monitoring and evaluation of the pilot areas and report back. The panel's role was to evaluate the effectiveness, humaneness, and safety of the controlled shooting method, not the effectiveness of badger culling to control bTB in cattle. The cull was to begin in 2012 led by DEFRA. However, the Secretary of State for Environment,
Owen Paterson, announced in a statement to Parliament on 23 October 2012 that a cull would be postponed until 2013 On 27 August 2013, a full culling programme began in two pilot areas, one mainly in West Somerset and the other mainly in West Gloucestershire with a part in Southeast Herefordshire, at an estimated cost of £7 million per trial area. Up to 5,094 badgers were to be shot. There were closed seasons during the cull, designed to prevent distress to animals or their dependent offspring.
Data collected Shooters failed to kill the target of 70% of badgers in both trial areas during the initial 6-week cull. During this time, 850 badgers were killed in Somerset and 708 in Gloucestershire. Of the badgers culled in Gloucestershire, 543 were killed through free shooting, whilst 165 were cage-trapped and shot. In Somerset, 360 badgers were killed by free shooting and 490 by being cage-trapped then shot. though, the
Information Commissioner's Office found that DEFRA was wrong to apply the Environmental Information Regulations in defence of its refusal to disclose information about the pilot cull methods. DEFRA originally intended to sample 240 badgers killed during the pilot culls, Therefore, only 1.1% of badgers killed by free shooting were tested for humaneness of shooting. No badgers were to be tested for bTB. Details of the ongoing pilot culls were not released whilst they were being conducted, and DEFRA declined to divulge how the success of the trials would be measured. As a result, scientists, the RSPCA, and other animal charities called for greater transparency over the pilot badger culls. Farming Minister
David Heath admitted in correspondence with Lord Krebs that the cull would "not be able to statistically determine either the effectiveness (in terms of badgers removed) or humaneness of controlled shooting". Lord Krebs, who led the RBCT in the 1990s, said the two pilots "will not yield any useful information".
Effectiveness of the cull {{quote box|width=22em|bgcolor=#D1EEEE| DEFRA has said it wishes its policy for controlling TB in cattle to be science-led. A substantial body of scientific evidence indicates that culling badgers will not be an effective or cost-effective policy. The best informed independent scientific experts agree that culling on a large, long-term, scale will yield modest benefits, and that it is likely to make things worse before they get better. It will also make things worse for farmers bordering on the cull areas. Leaks reported by the BBC in February 2014 indicated that the expert panel found that less than half of all badgers were killed in both trial areas. It was also revealed that between 6.8 and 18% of badgers took more than five minutes to die; the standard originally set was that this should be less than 5%. As culling was not selective, it was suggested that as many as six out of seven badgers killed could have been perfectly healthy and bTB free. The Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA) concluded, "the form and duration of badger social perturbation is still poorly understood and significant changes to our assumption may alter the order of preference [of the proposed options]." The DEFRA-commissioned FERA Report states: "Our modelling has shown that while the differences between the outcomes of strategies using culling and/or vaccinating badgers are quite modest (~about 15–40 CHBs prevented over 10 years), their risk profile is markedly different. Culling results in the known hazard of perturbation, leading to increased CHBs [Cattle Herd Breakdowns] in the periphery of the culling area. Culling also risks being ineffective or making the disease situation worse, if it is conducted partially (because of low compliance) or ineffectually (because of disruption or poor co-ordination) or it is stopped early (because of licensing issues). Vaccination carries no comparable risks or hazards." The UK government stated that a sustained cull, conducted over a wide area in a co-ordinated and efficient manner, over a period of nine years, might achieve a 9–16% reduction in disease incidence, The
British Veterinary Association say that data collected from research in other countries suggest that the control of the disease in farms has only been successfully carried out by dealing with both cattle and wild reservoirs of infection. In practice it is very difficult to quantify the contribution any wildlife reservoir has to the spread of bovine tuberculosis, since culling is usually carried out alongside cattle control measures (using "all the tools in the tool box" approach): "From Australian experience, government has learnt that elimination of a wildlife host (feral water buffalo) needs to be followed by a long and extensive programme of cattle testing, slaughter, movement control, and public awareness campaigns before bTB is eventually eradicated. And from New Zealand experience, population reduction of the wildlife host (possums) does not by itself reliably control bTB in cattle. In both Australia and New Zealand, government was dealing with feral reservoirs of bTB rather than indigenous wildlife species, as is the case with the badger in this country" Wilsmore, A.J. and Taylor, N. M. (2005). Bourne has also argued that the planned cull is likely only to increase the incidence of bTB, and that emphasis should instead be much greater on cattle farming controls. He claims, "the cattle controls in operation at the moment are totally ineffective", partly because the tuberculin test used in cattle is not accurate, causing tests in herds to often show negative results even while still harbouring the disease. Referring to the group's final report, he further argues that whilst cattle can get tuberculosis from badgers, the true problem is the other way around: "Badger infections are following, not leading, TB infections in cattle". Overall, he says, the cull will only do more harm than good, because, "you just chase the badgers around, which makes TB worse". Many cull opponents cite vaccination of badgers and cattle as a better alternative to culling. In Wales, where a policy of vaccination in 2013 was into its second year, Stephen James, who is the National Farmers Union Cymru's spokesperson on the matter, argues that the economics of badger culling are "ridiculous", saying the cost per badger was £620. "That's a very expensive way of trying to control this disease when we know full well, from experience from other countries, that there are cheaper ways of doing it...if you vaccinate in the clean areas, around the edges of the endemic areas, then there's a better chance of it working." Steve Clark, a director of the group, has separately said that "vaccination also reduces the bacilli that are excreted by infected badgers. It doesn't cure them, but it reduces the possibility of any further infection...in the region of a 75% level of protection. The lifespan of a badger is about five years. So if you continue the vaccination project for five years, then the majority of animals that were there at the beginning will have died out and that vaccination programme is leading towards a clean and healthy badger population." A DEFRA-funded statistical analysis from 2013 to 2017 has shown reduced incidence of farms affected by bTB of 66% in Gloucestershire and 37% in Somerset. After two years of culling in Dorset, no change in incidence was observed. An independent analysis of the data by comparing areas where culling had taken place to areas where the cull had yet to be implemented strongly suggested that the culling of badgers was having no effect on the incidence of bovine tuberculosis in cattle
The 2014/15 cull (England) On 3 April 2014, Owen Paterson decided to continue the culling trials in 2014, in the same areas of Gloucestershire and Somerset as the 2012/13 cull. On 20 May 2014, the Badger Trust applied for a judicial review of this policy in the High Court, claiming that Paterson unlawfully failed to put into place an independent expert panel to oversee the process. In response to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by the
Humane Society International (HSI) UK, DEFRA said that for nearly a year, it had been conducting initial investigations into carbon monoxide gas dispersal in badger sett-like structures. No live badgers have been gassed. HSI expressed concerns about the extent to which gassing causes animal suffering. The Badger Trust claimed at the High Court that this cull would take place without independent monitoring, but DEFRA has denied this, saying experts from Natural England and the Animal Health Veterinary Laboratory Agency will be monitoring the cull. In June 2015, the National Trust, one of the largest landowners in the UK, stated it would not be allowing badger cullers onto their land until the results of all 4 years of pilot trials were known.
Aims The 2014/15 cull targets had been lowered to 316 badgers in Somerset and 615 in Gloucestershire. Overall, the aim was for a reduction of 70% in badger populations over the successive culls. This was to be achieved with an emphasis on trapping badgers in cages and shooting them at dawn, rather than "free shooting".
Protests As in the 2013/14 cull, hundreds of protesters entered the culling areas to disrupt the badgers causing them to remain down their setts and avoiding being trapped and/or shot, or to look for injured badgers. On 9 September 2014, two saboteurs in Gloucestershire found a badger trapped in a cage with cullers nearby. The police were called and the saboteurs pointed out that under government guidelines, trapped badgers should be released if a risk of interference from a third party existed. The saboteur organisation, "Stop the Cull" said police "did the right thing" and freed the badger. Gloucestershire police confirmed the standoff, which it said was resolved peacefully – adding the decision to release the badger was made by a contractor working for the cull operator.
Brian May, guitarist with the rock band
Queen, is a critic of badger culling in the UK. He has called for the 2014/15 cull to be cancelled. "It's almost beyond belief that the government is blundering ahead with a second year of inept and barbaric badger killing," he said.
Policing In the 2013/2014 cull, police from forces including Sussex, Warwickshire, Cornwall, and the Metropolitan Police were brought in to help with policing, but the police have said that in the 2014/2015 cull, the focus will be on more community policing with local officers on patrol. "It will be very focused on Gloucestershire officers dealing will local issues."
Post-2020 On 26 June 2024,
Steve Reed (
Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) said the
Labour Party would no longer be looking to end the badger cull immediately if they win the upcoming general election. Instead, they would allow existing licences to run until they expire in 2026. This sparked criticism from environmental groups who have suggested this would need to be subject to judicial review, as the Labour party had labelled the badger cull as "ineffective" in combatting bTB in their manifesto, thereby potentially contradicting the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 by allowing the culling of a protected species without acknowledging any effectiveness in disease control. ==References==