Badgers do not spread tb  to cattle! nearly all of the badgers killed in the cull are not tested for tb.

cause of tb is expansion of industrial farming and increased density in cattle herds.

Badger culling is cruel, unnecessary, barbaric ,horrific , torturous practice to badgers and needs to end in Ireland. Badger culling must end in Ireland it is horrible animal cruelty and DAFM should be prosecuted as they have killed over 66,000 innocent badgers over the last ten years and have killed over 110,000 badgers since 1985 when European badgers are meant to be protected species in Ireland with the wildlife protection act 1976. Estimates suggest 200,000 badgers have ever been recorded in Ireland. That's more than half the population of badgers in Ireland that have been decimated(killed) by the government since 1985!  There should be stricter enforcement of wildlife protection act to protect badgers in Ireland and prosecute DAFM for culling badgers and prosecute anyone who kills badgers with long jail sentences. 6,000 snares are laid down by the DAFM every night these horrible hideous cruel snare devices trap badgers causing death and unimaginable suffering!  Badgers suffer horrific injuries from horrible cruel snares such as death, disembowelment, ruptured bladders and internal organ damage. This includes pregnant and lactating sow badgers leading their cubs to starve to death. Other wild animals including over 4,000 foxes in the last ten years have been killed by horrific snares DAFM lay down every night! Causing huge animal welfare concerns, colossal destruction(horrible, disgusting, extremally cruel, immoral  slaughter of badgers on a mass scale) and exponential reduction in biodiversity. This damages Ireland's reputation as a green economy! Badgers and wildlife have an equal right of being here! Just like us. Badgers and wildlife are an integral part of our heritage. This is an issue where not only enough is being done to protect our biodiversity by the state but it is actively destroying it with this horrible state sanctioned cruelty being badger culling! This makes Ireland an outlier for animal welfare as snaring is banned in Wales and Scotland where badger culling ended. Also a huge amount of money is being wasted by the tax payer. Millions of euro is being spent by the government with the national badger culling programme with this proven ineffective in fighting in the war of  tb in cattle! The IWT thinks this money should be spent vaccinating badgers instead as this prevents badgers from contracting tb. Vaccinating badgers can prevent badgers contracting tb from tb contaminated slurry that farmers are spraying all over crop fields where no cattle are present where badgers come to eat earthworms at night as slurry attracts earthworms. Satellite images prove badgers actively avoid cattle pastures due to their elusive nature. 15 years of research here by the DAFM has also shown vaccinating badgers is way more effective than badger culling. So why on earth is badger culling still happening in Ireland!  There is a lack of transparency about this between the government and the public and this is causing issues with the public trusting the government!  Badger culling in Ireland has led to local extinctions of badgers and badger culling hugely risks that badgers could become extinct in Ireland if badger culling doesn't stop! Badger culling is completely unethical and cruel and proven with evidence from tons of reputable scientific studies, research and data that badger culling is utterly ineffective in ridding tb in cattle and that it increases cattle tb rates making tb issue in cattle worse as tb in cattle comes from cattle to cattle transmission and never from badger to cattle transmission all evidence proves! As cattle are already chronically infected with tb and constantly reinfecting each other due to lack of implementing sanitary measures on cattle farms and expansion of industrial farming, increased density in cattle herds, slurry(as little as 1 gram does infect cattle with tb!)

and faulty defective skin testing is causing tb issue in cattle as it is so inaccurate that up to 30 skin tests can fail to identify a tb infected cow and cattle skin testing completely fails to identify all tb infected cattle in a herd too leading cattle to keep constantly reinfect each other with tb and often spread tb to whole cattle herds! Badger culling must end! Big trials have occurred in Ireland and the UK. For instance in the UK they spent 50 million over ten year period and the two meaningful results were 1. Badger culling doesn't work and makes cattle tb rates increase and makes issue worse and 2. By cattle means alone you will solve the tb in cattle problem!    

 

 

Out of  10,301 badgers culled by the DAFM and tested over the five years leading 2025; {80}% tested tb negative! The Journal investigates reveals. By mid 2025 4,424 badgers were culled by the DAFM, 450 tested tb negative out of the 662 badgers tested post mortems revealed! Meaning 68% of that specific tested group were tb negative! Wildlife experts argue badger culls are cruel and ineffective as the culls kill a vast number of innocent uninfected badgers! A world without badgers is a terrible prospect! But if the culls continue we could lose badgers from our countryside! The current population of European badgers in Ireland is unknown and data deficient. No one has ever accurately counted badgers in this country! While it has always been assumed badgers are common animals, this can no longer be taken for granted!   In Gatcombe farm in Devon they were able to rid cattle of tb off the farm via implementing sanitary measures after lots of herd were infected with tb without having to kill or vaccinate a single badger while the badgers were infected with tb. Cows are already chronically infected with tb and constantly reinfecting each other. None of the cattle were tb infected that were grazing in field beside badger sett. Only cattle that were tb infected were the ones confined to sheds.

Once fast emptying plus fast refilling water troughs were added and were cleared out every few days to keep them clean and once barriers were put in feeding stations to stop cattle from defecating in the water troughs and once slurry was cleaned and removed daily by battery operated slurry collector was used going out 42 times a day to remove slurry  as tb can be spread to slurry to other cattle via cattle to cattle tb transmission and once dung pcr tests, blood tests and saliva tests were used Gatcombe was able to successfully identify all tb infected cattle . Skin cattle tb tests should stop being used by farmers and government as up to 30 skin tests have proven to fail to detect tb in a tb infected cow.  Badger to cattle tb transmission never occurs. The badgers only got tb at Gatcombe from tb infected slurry being spread on fields which attracts earthworms that they eat at night. Badgers are no risk to cattle as it's proven through satellite images they avoid pastures with cattle due to their elusive  nature. Water troughs should be kept high off ground too to avoid defecation and steps should be put beside them as cattle can never step up a step backwards only forwards. Scrupulous hygiene should be implemented in farms instead of badger culling to eliminate tb in cattle. Slurry shouldn't be spread on fields. The wildlife protection act should be enforced to make badgers a fully protected species and the badger cull in Ireland must end. It doesn't work its incredibly ineffective for eliminating tb in cattle as 7,319 badgers were culled in 2024 in Ireland by DAFM. This is highest amount of badgers culled in a year ever in Ireland yet there was still increase in tb in cattle herds in 2024 compared to 2023 proving culling badgers is not the answer to ridding tb in cattle as badgers don't cause tb in cattle scientific evidence proves! Better cattle testing needs to be implemented  such as dung pcr, blood and saliva tb tests which were proven to be extremally accurate and effective and were able to successfully identify all tb infected cattle in Gatcombe before Gatcombe farm was certified tb free after sanitary measures were implemented. Cattle density needs to be lowered in herds too as it is causing tb to skyrocket in cattle herds too! Please sign my petition and exonerate and clear badgers names as they are not guilty in spreading tb to cattle. Badgers can only get tb from cattle i.e tb infected slurry being spread on fields. Cattle can never get tb from Badgers as badgers don't cause tb in cattle. Stop blaming badgers for a disease they don't cause! 

 

There is no correlation between badger culling and reduction in tb rates in cattle! 

Badger culling needs to be stopped. Implement the needed sanitary measures and proper accurate blood, dung pcr and saliva cattle tb tests(not faulty inaccurate defective skin tests). Remeber Gatcombe became certified tb free doing so.

If we get together to move things forward! The Irish government has to make a change and they have to make it right now! Stop doing the same thing with horrible cruel unnecessary badger culling and expecting a different result. We can make a change! The Irish government needs a huge rethink!

please clear badgers names and exonerate them! Badgers are not guilty in spreading tb to cattle! Stop Blaming badgers for a disease they do not cause! NOT GUILTY!

Protect our biodiversity. It is in crisis! Don't actively destroy it Irish government! End badger culling in Ireland, it doesn't work! It doesn't reduce tb rates in cattle! 

Thanks for listening,

Sign my petition to end badger culling in Ireland,

Thank you :)