Stop the badger cull
Latest news
Opposition debate results
On Wednesday, 5 June MPs voted narrowly against an opposition motion to reverse the government’s misguided strategy aimed at combating bovine TB. How did your MP vote? (PDF 220 KB)
Mythbusters report launched
A Team Badger report 'Backing Badgers: Why the cull will fail' refutes the top 10 arguments to support the cull of badgers and debunks some of the myths being used to justify the 'mindless' cull of badgers.
Download the report and please sign the Number 10 petition against the cull!
The Issue
Following years of contentious debate, the Westminster government confirmed that it will go ahead with a pilot badger cull in two areas of England in 2012. The locations of the pilot culls have been announced and culls are planned for the districts of West Somerset and West Gloucestershire. As culling cannot be selective many perfectly healthy badgers will be slaughtered as ‘collateral damage’ in fact, as many as 6 out of 7 badgers killed could be bTB free.
Scientific consensus does not support a cull of badgers. More than 30 of the top animal disease experts describe the cull as a "costly distraction" that risks making the problem of tuberculosis in cattle worse and that will cost far more than it saves.
The proposals are part of a package of measures aimed at controlling bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in cattle. The RSPCA believes that vaccination, increased levels of testing and improved biosecurity are more effective ways of dealing with the problem in the long term and eradicating bovine TB in cattle for good. Download our report 'Backing Badgers: Why the cull will fail' for more information about the flawed scientific arguments used to justify this reckless cull.
How you can help...
The culls are due to begin in June 2013, it’s now or never for the badgers!
Step 1: Urge your MP to attend the debate and vote against the cull!
Step 2: Sign the Number 10 petition.
Step 3: Badger your friends and family to sign too! Lets get it to 250,000 voices against the cull before Wednesday 5 June!
We need to demonstrate that we will not sit by and allow this war on our wildlife to go ahead unchallenged.
Speaking out against the cull
Scientists and farmers have been speaking out against the badger cull.
Lord Krebs, a respected science adviser to the government, has told the BBC the badger cull plan is a 'crazy scheme'.
Steve Jones has 35 years' livestock management experience and he agrees, shooting badgers isn't the solution to bovine TB. Read more in the Guardian's article: Badger cull: not in this farmer's name.
