The Wildlife Trusts are aghast that more than 70,000 healthy badgers will be shot this autumn in the government’s largest ever seasonal cull. 

The move comes despite the government’s promise just six months ago to support badger vaccination and move away from shooting this protected species.

The cull will result in the deaths of badgers which have been vaccinated by volunteers in government-funded programmes. 

Take action for badgers

Essex Wildlife Trust's position statement

Editor’s notes:

References

A strategy for achieving Bovine Tuberculosis Free Status for England: 2018 review, led by Professor Sir Charles Godfray 

The figure for total estimated UK badger population is taken from Judge, J., Wilson, G.J., Macarthur, R. et al. Abundance of badgers (Meles meles) in England and Wales. Sci Rep 7, 276 (2017).

DEFRA publishes the annual numbers of badgers culled under licence for individual years.

Trusts have been vaccinating badgers in areas of Derbyshire, Shropshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Oxfordshire.

The 6 counties where culling is taking place for the first time are:

Derbyshire

Oxfordshire

Leicestershire

Lincolnshire

Shropshire

Warwickshire

The total 11 additional areas for this autumn are:

Avon

Derbyshire

Gloucestershire

Herefordshire

Oxfordshire

Leicestershire

Lincolnshire

Somerset

Shropshire

Wiltshire

Warwickshire

Badger culls have previously taken place in the following locations:

Avon

Cheshire

Cornwall

Cumbria

Devon 

Dorset

Gloucestershire

Herefordshire

Somerset

Staffordshire 

Wiltshire