Animal charities 'deeply disappointed' as Defra endorses next cull

Animal welfare charities have reacted strongly to the announcement by Nigel Gibbens, the Chief Veterinary Officer that DEFRA's badger cull policy should continue for a third year in 2015.

Environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss said during the last parliament bovine TB rates in England soared to the highest in Europe and urged a 'comprehensive strategy' to be implemented which included cattle movement controls and culling.

Timed to coincide with the final day of Parliament before Christmas, the announcement carefully avoids any opportunity for democratic debate or scrutiny. Publishing a summary of data on effectiveness and humaneness at the same time as releasing the CVO’s recommendation to proceed with a 2015 cull, likewise avoids proper consideration of the data by stakeholders.

"Statistics released today describe a second year of badger cull failure," Humane Society International said.

"An Independent Expert Panel report concluded that the 2013 pilot culls were neither effective nor humane, failing to meet targets despite weeks of extensions, and with as many as 18 percent of badgers taking more than 5 minutes to die. DEFRA abandoned the IEP for the 2014 cull meaning there has been no independent scrutiny."


The information published by DEFRA confirms that Gloucestershire cull of 274 badgers failed to achieve the minimum target number of badgers to be shot (615), and that the Somerset cull reported killing 341 badgers, only just meeting the minimum target of 316 badgers.

Claire Bass, Executive Director for Humane Society International/UK said: “We are extremely disappointed that once again the Chief Veterinary Officer has chosen to endorse what is widely considered within the scientific community to be a cruel and costly failure of a badger cull. Hundreds of badgers have been slaughtered as scapegoats to appease a vocal minority of farmers resisting the reforms of farming practices which would control TB. DEFRA has not placed sufficient data in the public domain to allow independent assessment of the suffering of badgers, but the headlines are clear: many badgers will have taken up to five minutes to die, and many will have been mortally wounded and slowly bled to death underground. If DEFRA decides to carry on with the cull for a third year it will again be firmly placing politics above science and ethics.

"Sneaking this announcement out on the last day of Parliament before Christmas speaks to the failings the government must recognise in its own policy. It fails animal welfare by subjecting supposedly protected animals to inhumane shooting; it fails farmers by promising a solution to TB that scientists agree cannot be delivered by killing badgers; and it fails the public by wasting valuable funds that could be far better deployed on nationwide badger vaccination, improved farm biosecurity and stricter cattle movement measures. We need only look to the Welsh for a humane and effective alternative to this cull - they have so far vaccinated more than 3,000 badgers, committed to funding more, implemented stricter cattle measures, and their cattle TB incidence is coming down year on year. We urge the government to replicate the Welsh model and kill the cull once and for all.”

DEFRA’s own figures previoulsy published also confirm that the failed cull came at a cost of about £5,200 per badger, despite the fact that the majority of badgers shot are likely to have been completely healthy and TB-free.