Article issued by the Badger Trust.
Over half of UK Badger Population Killed: 247,880 Culled Since 2013
Official figures from Natural England released today reveal another 17,150 badgers were killed in 2024 culls.
Of those numbers, 524 badgers were killed in Buckinghamshire, which will leave some setts in the county empty for the first time in many years.
The Badger Blame Game has continued. When the government pledged to end the ‘ineffective badger culls’—their words, not ours—we hoped we wouldn’t have to write this post again. An additional 17,150 badgers have been killed for a policy that no one believes works, bringing the total number culled since 2013 to 247,880 (51% of the last population estimate)
This is a policy built on failure. Badger Trust is clear: this is not about bovine TB control. If that were the case, the focus would be on the source, which is that 94% of all bovine TB transmission is from cattle to cattle.
Natural England’s figures reveal that six of the eighteen intensive cull areas reduced their targets. Let’s not forget that it is the cull contractors who set and amend the figures, not Natural England, which proves that they have no idea how many badgers there are to start with.
In total, seven of the cull zones, both supplementary and intensive, did not hit their minimum cull targets – that is an epic failure and not a success, as the Chief Vet claims. Four of these areas also failed to meet their minimum targets last year, and two areas have not achieved their minimum cull targets since 2019.
Seven cull areas failed to meet their minimum cull targets in 2024, with two of these areas repeatedly falling short of their targets since 2019.
The Chief Vet’s assessment of success is based on the number and accuracy of the badgers shot, with the priority that no people were harmed. There is no part of the reporting criteria relating to Bovine TB, so the report is critically flawed.
Badger Trust calls on the Government to bring an end to the pointless and costly slaughter of badgers, which has had little to no impact on the number of cattle that are killed prematurely because they have bovine TB.
Nearly a quarter of a million Badgers have been killed and not even tested – it is a travesty that has left badger populations in some areas so low that the shooters cannot find them to kill them.
