February 2014: The 2013 badger cull pilot schemes in Somerset and Gloucestershire fell far short of their targets, according to an independent scientific assessment organised by the Government. The number of badgers killed was lower than required to demonstrate the effectiveness of culling in controlling the spread of bovine TB, and the test for humaneness in the methods used to kill the badgers also failed. Up to 18 per cent of culled badgers took longer than five minutes to die, the assessment found, which contravened the requirements of the scheme. And although there was evidence that TB within the control areas diminished, it increased in areas outside the trial.
The pilots were authorised by Defra and licensed by Natural England. The target for marksmen was to kill at least 70 per cent of badgers in the cull areas within a six-week period. Research carried out by a group of scientists in earlier trials proved that a failure to kill this percentage of badgers in a narrow window of time could actually worsen matters, as diseased animals would leave a family sett that had been disturbed and scatter, carrying TB into new areas.
Contracted marksmen, paid for by farming groups, were employed to shoot the animals at night, aiming at one shot to the heart/lung area as the quickest and most humane best practice, but the assessment found there were significant instances where this did not happen and the badgers were shot in parts of the body that did not lead to instant death.
Professor Rosie Woodroffe, a scientist at the Zoological Society of London, said: “The panel's findings show unequivocally that the culls were not effective and that they failed to meet the humaneness criteria. I hope this will lead the Secretary of State, Owen Patterson, to focus on other ways of eradicating TB in cattle."
Prof Woodroffe was among 32 scientists who wrote to Mr Patterson in 2012 expressing fears that the culls risked increasing TB in cattle rather than reducing it. "Our predictions have been borne out," she said. "It has cost a fortune and probably contributed nothing in terms of disease control, which is really unfortunate."
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