'Inhumane': Campaigners slam plans for 'pointless slaughter of countless badgers' in Buckinghamshire

The Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) has slammed an application for a licence to shoot badgers in the county.

Government-licensed badger culling was first introduced in England in 2013 as a means to tackle the spread of bovine tuberculosis (bTB).

Licences are granted to individual landowners, and allow for approved individuals to kill badgers by shooting them with a shotgun.

Photo by Andrew Mason

In January 2021, after years of opposition from the public and environmental organisations like BBOWT, the government announced that the issuing of new licences would be stopped after 2022.

As each licence lasts for four years, that means all badger culling will cease to be legal in 2026.

At the same time, Environment Secretary George Eustice launched a consultation on the 'next phase' of the government's strategy to eradicate bTB in England by 2038.

More than 40,000 people responded to that consultation urging the government to stop issuing licences immediately - and prioritise vaccination instead.

Badger vaccination - by Tom Marshall

Despite that opposition, the government announced in September that it would be issuing seven new licences for badger culling across England, including in Berkshire and Oxfordshire.

Those licences, in addition to 33 existing cull areas across England, allow for up to 83,210 badgers to be shot.

The latest application for Buckinghamshire, if approved, would increase that number further.

By the end of the cull, 300,000 badgers out of an estimated population of 485,000 may have been killed.

BBOWT has been running a highly successful badger vaccination program in this area since 2014 and has inoculated hundreds of badgers at its own nature reserves, on council land, at farms and on private estates.

BBOWT badger vaccinations - by Mark Bosworth

Their programme has proved that vaccination is 60 times cheaper than killing badgers by shooting them.

Estelle Bailey, Chief Executive of the Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust, said: "We know nature is in crisis, so it’s deeply disappointing to see this licence application which could lead to the pointless slaughter of countless badgers in our area.

"The government has already agreed to stop the cull in 2026 and instead push for vaccination of badgers and cattle, which we believe is a better, more humane and cheaper way to fight bovine TB.

“The fact that landowners like this applicant are being given one last chance to shoot as many badgers as they can - an act that will soon be illegal - is an embarrassment to this government and we call on them to stop the cull right now.

“We need more nature everywhere - and that includes badgers."

A two-week period for comments on the licence application in Buckinghamshire to be made to Natural England started on February 7 – but they stressed it is not to be used to “declare views for or against the bovine TB policy” and should only be used by those whose livelihood or daily activities would be affected.

Natural England says it has received applications or expressions of interest for a Badger Disease Control Licence within the counties of Cheshire, Cornwall, Derbyshire, Devon and Northamptonshire as well.

BBOWT and the 45 other local conservation charities that make up The Wildlife Trusts are calling on the government to simply achieve its own ambition of ending the cull - but sooner.

Bovine TB is an extremely harmful disease, and The Wildlife Trusts say they are sympathetic to the “great hardship” that it causes the farming community, but said: “Badgers are not the main culprit: the main source of bTB is cattle-to-cattle transmission, and scientific evidence has shown the culling of badgers is ineffective in fighting bTB in cattle.”

They also want the government to deliver a bTB vaccination strategy, roll out a cattle vaccine, improve the testing of cattle and limit their movement across the country and ensure higher standards of biosecurity to prevent the spread of bTB.