European badgers face significant welfare pressures from tuberculosis infection, government culling programs, road mortality, and habitat loss - making them one of Britain's most welfare-challenged wild mammals.
Badgers face a uniquely grim welfare situation: they are culled to protect cattle from a disease that cattle farming practices have helped spread among badger populations. The culling methods used cause documented suffering - wounded animals that escape may die slowly. Meanwhile, the social disruption caused by culling - called the perturbation effect - may actually worsen disease spread by causing badgers to range more widely. Vaccination programs offer a welfare-positive alternative that addresses disease without mass killing, but implementation has been slow relative to culling programs.