Defra has quietly published information on new areas where badger culling is taking place in 2022.
There are 11 new areas for this year – including in counties such as Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire for the first time – and culling is taking place in a total of 69 places. Information published alongside the new licences states that, to achieve the 70% reduction in badger population that Defra wants to see in cull areas, up to nearly 68,000 badgers could be shot this year.
The badger cull licences that have just been published on the Defra website are all dated 26 August – this means that they may have been culling badgers for two months already in an attempt to be seen to control bovine TB in cattle. Yet experts say this approach is not effective.
Joan Edwards, director of policy and public affairs at The Wildlife Trusts says:
“The Wildlife Trusts are horrified that 11 new areas have been approved for badger culling in 2022. As many as nearly 68,000 badgers could be killed across the 69 locations where culling will take place.
“We believe an evidence-based and scientifically reliable approach must be developed to counteract the risk posed to cattle by bTB. Culling badgers is not the answer. Badgers are not the primary cause of the spread of bTB in cattle – the primary route of infection is from cattle-to-cattle. There is work being done to accelerate the introduction of an effective cattle vaccine and improved bTB testing in cattle – these offer the best long-term way to reduce bTB in the cattle population.”
Dr Jo Smith, Chief Executive of Derbyshire Wildlife Trust says:
“We are appalled that the badger cull has been allowed to happen here in Derbyshire despite the success of our badger vaccination programme, which began in 2014 and is now one of the largest vaccination programmes in the UK.
“To be vaccinated, badgers are humanely caught in traps at night, vaccinated and marked by clipping the fur and spray marking before being released back into the wild. As it stands, culling can be done either through free shooting outside traps while they forage or shot directly after being caught in a trap. Defra has never clarified whether a clipped, vaccinated badger should be released as an animal fully vaccinated against bTB, or if they can be shot by cullers. It means healthy badgers across Derbyshire are being shot, including ones we have vaccinated.
“We understand the hardship that bTB causes in the farming community and the need to find the right mechanisms to control the disease. However, The Wildlife Trusts believe the badger cull is not the answer because badgers are not the primary cause of the spread of bTB in cattle.”
The Wildlife Trusts believe that strong regulations and restrictions on cattle movements, as well as the development of cattle vaccine, are the best approach for the farming industry and wildlife. It is vital that the Government ends the cull, accelerates the roll out of a cattle vaccine and implements livestock movement restrictions as soon as possible.