Badger culling as a bovine tuberculosis control measure is among the most contentious wildlife welfare issues in the UK. Evidence and ethics both demand scrutiny.
Badger culling causes direct welfare harm to individual animals and disrupts social groups. Free shooting — the primary method — has welfare concerns about wounding rates, where shot animals die slowly rather than immediately. Cage trapping involves prolonged confinement stress. These welfare harms require robust scientific justification. The evidence base for cull effectiveness is contested, raising the question whether these welfare costs are ethically justifiable when vaccination alternatives exist. The debate exemplifies the need for welfare considerations to inform wildlife disease management policy.