Licence application 'could lead to pointless slaughter of countless badgers in Bucks'

An application for a licence to kill badgers in Bucks "could lead to the pointless slaughter of countless badgers in our area", says Buckinghamshire's wildlife trust.

Natural England has received a new application for a Badger Disease Control Licence in Buckinghamshire.

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, allowing approved individuals to kill badgers by shooting them with a shotgun.

In January 2021, after years of opposition from the public and environmental organisations, 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.

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 in England and Wales may have been killed.

The Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) has been running a highly successful badger vaccination programme since 2014 and has inoculated hundreds of badgers at its own nature reserves, on council land, at farms and on private estates.

BBOWT says the results have shown that not only is vaccination a more human way to tackle the disease, but it is also 60 times cheaper than killing badgers by shooting them.

Chief executive Estelle Bailey 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."

BBOWT and the 45 other local conservation charities that make up The Wildlife Trusts are calling on the government to end the culling of badgers sooner than 2026 deadline.

They say they are sympathetic to the great hardship that bovine TB causes the farming community, but that badgers are not the main culprit.

The main source of bTB, they say, is cattle-to-cattle transmission, and scientific evidence has shown that the culling of badgers is ineffective in fighting bTB in cattle.

Instead of badger culling, the Wildlife Trusts want the government to develop and deliver a badger vaccination strategy; roll out a cattle vaccine; improve testing of cattle for bTB and limit the movement of cattle across the country; and ensure higher standards of biosecurity on farms to prevent the spread of bTB.

Natural England will not release details of any badger cull areas, individual land holdings or participants, because of "concerns for public safety and data protection legislation".

Members of the public are permitted to comment on the new licence application for Bucks - but only if the cull may impact their livelihood or daily activities.

The Opportunity to Comment on the Badger Disease Control Licence application can be found here.

The website states: "The Opportunity to Comment is not to be used to declare views for or against the Bovine TB policy.

"If your comment is not regarding impacts to your livelihood or daily activities, you should contact the relevant authority, Defra."

"You can write to them directly: [email protected] or visit their website for other methods of contact."