12 July 2023

BORN FREE URGES MPS TO END UK BADGER CULL

Born Free staff and supporters joined colleagues and friends from the Badger Trust and the League Against Cruel Sports to lobby MPs in Westminster to bring an immediate end to the culling of badgers.

Around 40 people attended the event in the central lobby in the Houses of Parliament, including Born Free’s Head of Policy Dr Mark Jones, it’s British Wildlife Advocate Dominic Dyer, Peter Hambly from the Badger Trust, and ecologist Tom Langton who alongside Mark Jones and fellow vet Iain McGill co-authored an academic study published last year that found no evidence for the effectiveness of badger culling in reducing bovine TB in cattle. Several MPs and assistants responded to their requests for meetings.

Following the event Mark Jones said: “Since 2013, more than 210,000 badgers have been cruelly killed under licence in England, yet the evidence for its effectiveness in reducing Bovine TB is at best equivocal. In spite of promises to the contrary, there are real fears that the government plans to extend culling for many years to come, which could lead to the disappearance of badgers from areas of the country they have inhabited since the ice age. We hope our efforts in Westminster today will help to persuade at least a few MPs that the time to bring an end to this inhumane, ineffective and unnecessary slaughter is long overdue, and we urge ministers and the Chief Vet and Chief Scientist at DEFRA* to meet with us to hear our concerns.

“I would like to thank everyone who attended the parliamentary lobby and urge all our friends and supporters to keep calling for an end to the cull. With our wildlife in crisis, it cannot be right for government to licence the mass extermination of one of our few remaining iconic mammals for the sake of political expediency.”

Born Free will continue to campaign for an end to badger culling.

*Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Image (c) Badger Trust