Farmers get £50 a kill as badger cull is expanded
THE badger cull is set to go nationwide, with English farmers offered £50 a kill in an attempt to quell the spread of TB.
Previously, it was only permitted in areas deemed to be at high risk of bovine TB, but new guidance will permit the killing of badgers in areas where cows are believed to be at a low risk.
Bovine TB is thought to be spread by badgers, and culling trials were introduced in the UK as a way of controlling the disease in 2013.
The trials were expanded to a larger area in 2016 and 2017 and currently badger culling is permitted in 21 areas of England where the disease is common.
A further expansion means that culling will be permitted across most of the country, wherever there is an outbreak of bovine TB.
Implementation of the expansion could take place this autumn if applications for badger control licences are approved by the Defra executive agency and culling licensee Natural England.
George Eustice, Defra minister, said: “Any decision on whether to implement badger control in a specific low risk area will be taken by the Defra Secretary of State after considering all relevant scientific and veterinary advice. All the stringent licensing criteria set out in Defra’s Guidance to Natural England will need to be met by the cull company.”
Last year more than 19,200 badgers were killed through the culling scheme, down from the 39,364 in 2016. Expansion of the culling programme has been opposed by animal rights organisations. The RSPCA has urged a vaccination scheme and increased testing of cattle as an alternative to the cull, which it says is inhumane.
Natural England is facing two legal challenges in July connected to the badger cull programme.
The legal action is being led by Tom Langton, an ecology consultant, and is being funded by several animal rights groups, including the Badger Trust and the Born Free Foundation.
The first legal challenge relates to a consultation that was carried out in 2016 and 2017 in relation to culling policy. The second relates to culling licences for 2017 and argues that the ecological impact assessments “were not done correctly”.
Mr Langton told Farmers Weekly: “There are a lot of animals in decline or rare species in the countryside and it doesn’t take much to change their habitats before their fate is changed.”
Both challenges are due to be heard at the High Court in London from July 9 to 11.
Most of the farming community support extending the badger cull into low-risk areas, according to the results of a government consultation that ran from February 16 to April 15. These groups include the National Farmers Union, the British Cattle Veterinary Association, and the British Veterinary Association.
The number of cows that have succumbed to the disease has risen significantly over the last four years. More than 42,000 were slaughtered prematurely in 2017 because they tested positively from bovine TB, up from 27,474 in 2014.