Continuation of Badger Persecution in the UK
Continuation of Badger Persecution in the UK
The Westminster government has adopted the culling of badgers under licence as part of its strategy to control bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in England, a disease which results in the premature slaughter of tens of thousands of farmed cattle each year.
By the end of 2018, more than 67,000 badgers had been shot, more than half by ‘controlled shooting’, a method considered inhumane by veterinary authorities and by the government’s own appointed advisory body. If the policy continues to be rolled out, the number of badgers killed could run into hundreds of thousands and badgers could disappear altogether across large swathes of the English countryside, where they have lived since the ice age.
