European badgers are implicated in bovine tuberculosis transmission to cattle. The culling debate involves complex welfare, science, and policy considerations.
Badger culling causes direct welfare harm to hundreds of thousands of animals — shooting in the field causes wounding without immediate death in a proportion of cases, and cage trapping causes acute stress. The welfare case for vaccination over culling is strong: BCG vaccination reduces disease progression in badgers, protects individual animals, and avoids the acute welfare harm of lethal methods. As badger vaccination programs scale up, they offer an approach that addresses disease concerns without the direct welfare cost of culling programs.