Badger culling in the United Kingdom

Lore & Background

Badger culling in the UK began with gassing in the 1960s and 1970s to control rabies, but after Mycobacterium bovis was discovered in badgers in Gloucestershire in 1971, culling was used to combat bTB. The Badgers Act 1973 made killing badgers without a licence illegal, later consolidated into the Protection of Badgers Act 1992. From 1998 to 2005, the Randomised Badger Culling Trials (RBCT) were conducted, culling 11,000 badgers in cage traps. The trials found that proactive culling reduced bTB by 19% inside cull areas but increased it by 29% outside due to a 'perturbation effect' where surviving badgers ranged more widely. The Independent Scientific Group concluded in 2007 that badger culling could make no meaningful contribution to bTB control and recommended focusing on cattle measures.

Reader's Guide

The significance of badger culling in the United Kingdom lies in its role as a contentious wildlife management policy aimed at reducing bovine tuberculosis in cattle, a disease with economic costs to farmers and taxpayers. Despite decades of culling, including 210,000 badgers by 2024 at a cost of £58.8 million, scientific evidence from the RBCT showed that culling produced only modest benefits inside cull areas and worsened the disease outside them, with costs far exceeding savings. The policy was ultimately abandoned in favour of vaccination, with no new licences granted after 2024 and the practice effectively ending by May 2026. The legacy includes ongoing debate about the balance between wildlife protection, agricultural economics, and disease control, as well as the importance of evidence-based policy in managing complex ecological and public health issues.

Did You Know?

• The Randomised Badger Culling Trials (1998–2005) found that culling increased bTB by 29% in areas just outside the cull zone due to badger behaviour changes.
• By 2023, the UK had culled approximately 210,000 badgers, though cost and cattle cull figures for the same period are not consistently reported as canonical statistics.
• Tuberculosis compensation paid to farmers cost UK taxpayers around £150 million per year.
• The Welsh Labour administration cancelled a targeted cull in Pembrokeshire in 2012 after concluding it was ineffective, also citing legal challenges and scientific advice.