This week’s announcement by Natural England that 29 farmers groups have applied to kill badgers suggests a bleak future for Dorset’s badgers. Since the aim of culling badgers is to reduce TB in cattle (for which badgers are blamed by some) you might assume from this eagerness to extend the slaughter that the culls already carried out must have been highly successful.

Not so! We’ve now had 3 years of culling in Somerset and Gloucestershire and 1 year in Dorset. Result? TB is worse in all 3 zones than it was before culling. In Dorset for example, cattle numbers slaughtered due to TB were falling before culling began last year. Official Animal and Plant Agency figures just released show a sharp rise after last year’s Dorset cull. Scotland is TB Free though there are badgers there. In Wales there has been a 30% reduction in cattle TB without killing badgers, while in the Republic of Ireland they've been killing badgers for 30 years without having any noticeable effect on TB. Now they want to kill deer too.

The rises in cattle TB incidence in the 3 English cull zones may be nothing to do with the culls. But it’s hardly the stunning success the National Farmers Union and government have been claiming, despite producing no evidence to support their claims. It’s also exactly what the UK’s leading animal scientists warned might happen. The scientific consensus? ‘Culling badgers can play no useful role in the control of TB in cattle. Some methods, such as the present haphazard one are likely to make matters worse’.

Yours sincerely

Andy Hamilton B.Sc.

Wessex Badger Guardians

High St West Coker