The badger culling program in England aimed at reducing bovine tuberculosis involves killing thousands of badgers annually with contested evidence of effectiveness.
Badgers shot in culling operations may be wounded rather than killed immediately, causing prolonged suffering. Trap-and-shoot methods require accurate shooting under field conditions. Badgers are social animals; culling disrupts social groups causing perturbation effects where surviving badgers disperse and potentially spread disease. Vaccination programs avoid killing entirely, with capture stress from trapping as the primary welfare concern. The ethical tensions between cattle welfare from bovine TB and badger welfare in culling programs are significant.