The controversial badger culling programme in England raises welfare questions about culling efficiency, wounded animals, and the proportionality of the welfare costs imposed.
Badger culling welfare is contested on both scientific and ethical grounds. From a welfare science perspective, the key concerns are the proportion of shot badgers that take extended time to die — indicating non-instantaneous death and potential suffering — and the broader welfare costs of a programme that kills tens of thousands of animals annually. The policy debate around whether culling achieves its stated disease control objective is separate from but intertwined with the welfare question: if culling is ineffective at disease control, the welfare costs cannot be justified by the benefit claimed. Vaccination programmes impose lower welfare costs on badgers and contribute to the long-term resolution of bovine tuberculosis control.