Badgers are culled in large numbers as part of England's bovine tuberculosis control policy, with ongoing welfare debates about culling methods, effectiveness, and vaccination as an alternative.
Badger culling welfare is among the most contentious areas of UK wildlife policy. Free shooting - where marksmen shoot badgers using high-powered rifles at night - is the dominant method but independent assessment found unacceptably high rates of prolonged deaths, indicating significant welfare harm. Cage-trapping followed by shooting is considered more humane but is more resource-intensive. Vaccination avoids welfare harm to badgers entirely while providing comparable herd-level bTB protection in evidence. The ongoing policy debate involves genuine tensions between cattle farmer welfare, badger welfare, and public health, but vaccination's welfare advantage over lethal culling is clear.