The culling of badgers to control bovine tuberculosis is one of the most contested wildlife management decisions in the UK, raising both welfare and efficacy questions.
Badger culling by free shooting has been documented to cause prolonged death in a proportion of animals. Field studies during the original pilot culls found that some shot badgers took over five minutes to die. Cage-trapped and controlled shooting achieves better outcomes but is more resource-intensive. The welfare cost of large-scale culling of a protected species is substantial. The scientific community remains divided on culling efficacy, making the welfare cost harder to justify on conservation grounds.