The badger culling policy in England to control bovine tuberculosis raises significant welfare concerns for both badgers and cattle. Understanding the evidence helps inform better policy positions.
Culling methods cause significant welfare concerns. Cage trapping and shooting can cause prolonged stress and injury when shots are not immediately fatal. Field evidence shows a proportion of culled badgers sustain non-immediately-fatal gunshot wounds. Badgers are highly social animals; disruption of social groups causes stress. Cattle affected by bovine TB face significant welfare costs including the stress of testing, movement restrictions, and ultimately slaughter. Vaccination of badgers avoids lethal welfare costs while providing comparable long-term disease management.