Badgers are at the centre of the UK's most controversial wildlife management debate. Understanding badger welfare, bovine tuberculosis ecology, and the evidence base for culling versus vaccination is essential for informed advocacy.
Badger culling causes direct individual welfare harm through the stress of trapping, the mortality itself (where shooting is insufficiently precise), and the disruption of social groups in surviving clans. The perturbation effect - where culling disturbs badger social structures, potentially increasing movement and disease spread in surrounding areas - represents an additional welfare and ecological concern. Vaccination offers a more welfare-friendly approach that avoids these harms while potentially achieving comparable disease reduction. The welfare case for culling depends entirely on its effectiveness compared to alternatives - if vaccination achieves similar outcomes with far lower welfare cost, the welfare calculus clearly favours vaccination.