Slaughter of Badgers in England

The needless slaughter of badgers in England has begun. Thousands of healthy badgers will now be shot in a brutal and misguided attempt to control bovine tuberculosis.

Thanks to effective lobbying by welfare groups the situation in NI is marginally better for the badger with a trap and test survey taking place within areas of County Down. This permits live trapping, testing for TB and the culling of infected badgers. Healthy animals are vaccinated and returned to their habitat.

It is not a time for complacency. Culling is cheaper and, judging by the ‘blind eye’ turned to badger diggers there are significant numbers of landowners in NI supporting a cull.

The USPCA accepts the fact both badgers and cattle need protection from this scourge.

The Charity favours methods of control based in science and security rather than slaughter.

Biosecurity: All possible measures should be pursued to prevent disease transmission on-farm.

Badger vaccination: Support the use of injectable badger BCG vaccine whilst continuing development of an oral badger vaccine.

Cattle vaccine: Complete development of a cattle vaccine and secure changes to EU regulation to permit its commercial deployment.