1. It’s not ‘just’ a pilot

Roughly 2000 badgers will be shot in each area. 11,000 badgers have been killed and £40m has already

been spent (The Randomised Badger Culling Trial) to determine whether badger culling works to reduce

btb. This new ‘pilot’ will not test the reduction in btb using the new methods (free shooting of badgers

at night). We will never know if it works on those terms. It is a test to find out whether they can kill

70% of the badgers in the cull area, and kill them humanely. If the government decide that they can

achieve their kill rate without wounding too many, this will be rolled out across the country, for 25

years.

2. Nobody knows how many badgers there are.

Estimates suggest there are 300,000 in England – if the cull is rolled out, we stand to lose 1/3 of our badgers, the majority of which will be healthy. Prof Rosie Woodroffe recently raised concerns over serious uncertainties in the population estimates in the two pilots. Farmers in each area must kill between 70 and 90% of badgers, but the highest and lowest population estimates range differ by at least 1000 (2657-4079 in Glos). There is also a 40% chance the real population lies outside even that range.

If the real population is below the minimum cull target, farmers could kill all the badgers in the area, breaking the Bern convention.

3. At best it can only achieve a 16% reduction in new incidences of btb.

The RBCT found that at best, using a cage trap and shoot method, after 9 years, culling could reduce the increase in new incidences (not the overall amount of btb) by 16%. This is called a relative reduction, not an absolute reduction. The scientists involved in the RBCT and the ISG do not believe that the new method of culling can achieve this. In fact they believe it could make the situation worse (but no-one will be measuring that…).

4. There IS a vaccine for cattle and badgers.

Badgers are being vaccinated now by injection, which is less costly than the cage trap and shoot method of culling which may need to be employed. This vaccine has shown a 74% reduction in badgers testing positive for bovine tb and does not cause them to leave their territory and spread the disease further. There is a cattle vaccine which is being used in Ethiopia and has shown positive results (much better than the result that can be achieved with a cull). We currently can’t use it because of EU regulations. Why is our government not putting pressure on the EU to allow it’s use?

5. Culling badgers will not result in healthy badgers.

The RBCT found that culling badgers increases the level of the disease in the remaining population. You may have less badgers, but a higher proportion of them will be carrying the disease than before. This means that all the culling and gassing over the last 50 years has been making the situation worse.

6. Badgers rarely die of bovine tb.

Very few badgers, even in hotspot areas of the South West are even infected with bovine tb. Of those, only a very small percentage will become ill and therefore infectious. The vast majority of infected badgers are more likely to die of other causes. If this were not the case, badger groups across the country would be dealing with tb on a daily basis. They aren’t.

7. You may have heard ‘No country in the world has beaten bovine tb without addressing the disease in wildlife’.

This refers mainly to possums in New Zealand. Possums do not live in settled territories like badgers, they roam over much greater distances and interact with many other possums and species. Possums are also a pest species in New Zealand, not a native species. They were killed by dropping poisoned bait from the air. Poison is indiscriminate and has killed many of New Zealand native and protected wildlife. You cannot compare apples with oranges, or possums with badgers due to their very different ecology and behaviour.

8. The ISG report recommended cattle and biosecurity measures alone.

Lord Krebs, Chair of the Independent Scientific Group which reviewed the science of badger culling has repeatedly called the scheme ‘crazy’ most recently on Radio 4 . In 2012, 30 eminent scientists wrote to the government to express their belief that it can only make the situation worse, calling it ‘mindless’.

The ISG’s final report in 2007 concluded that culling was not an effective option. It analysed various strategies that could be pursued at lower cost – including licensing farmers to conduct a cull, and concluded:

“We consider it likely that licensing farmers (or their appointees) to cull badgers would not only fail to achieve a beneficial effect, but would entail a substantial risk of increasing the incidence of cattle TB and spreading the disease.”

Their opinion hasn’t changed.

Please sign the epetition against the badger cull here. http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/38257

Please also write to you MP and ask them to look at the science. Details for your MP can be found here http://findyourmp.parliament.uk/

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