Despite the phasing out of the nationwide badger cull, applicants for NEW cull zones are currently being rushed through. 

Badgers are not to blame for the spread of Bovine tuberculosis (BTB). Over 94% of BTB transmission is coe-to-cow. A Government-sponsored review of its OWN policy of controlling bovine TB in cattle, conducted by Oxford University Professor Sir Charles Godfray, concluded that it is wrong to over-emphasise the role of wildlife in the spread of the disease. This is why the government has decided to phase out the badger cull and focus on vaccination programmes for cows and badgers alike. 

And yet DEFRA are sneaking through applications for licenses to shoot badgers in new areas of current cull zones, therefore increasing the numbers of badgers killed to around 200,000. This is a PROTECTED and much loved native species. 

Tax payers’ money is used to pay contractors to shoot badgers. They are lured from their setts with bait and shot to death. The Independent estimates that it costs tax payers £7000 PER BADGER killed in this barbaric and ineffective programme. 

We call on DEFRA to cease considering licenses for the cull extensions with immediate effect. Further, we demand the end of this cruel and senseless program altogether.