Badgers in England have been subject to controversial culling programs since 2013 to reduce bovine tuberculosis in cattle, creating significant welfare harms with disputed effectiveness.
Culled badgers experience welfare harms that include capture stress, pain from imprecise shooting, and traumatic death. Cage trapping causes fear and distress during confinement. Free-shooting — moving badgers shot outside a cage — causes a significant proportion of non-immediately-fatal shots, leading to prolonged suffering. The welfare cost is compounded by disputed effectiveness: the badger cull has not achieved its own disease reduction targets in most areas. Alternative approaches using oral vaccines and improved cattle biosecurity would achieve comparable or better disease control without the welfare harm.