Badger culling continues despite Bern Convention findings

(c) A Morffew

Around a quarter of a million badgers have been killed across large parts of England since 2013 as part of a deeply flawed policy employed by successive UK governments to control bovine TB in cattle. 

In 2019, Born Free, alongside Badger Trust and Eurogroup for Animals, challenged the policy at the Council of Europe’s Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats, also known as the Bern Convention, to which the UK has been a signatory since 1979. Under the legally binding Convention, badgers are protected against persecution.  

Successive UK governments have tried to justify the culling of badgers by using a derogation under the Convention that allows interventions deemed necessary in order to “prevent serious damage to livestock.” This derogation is, however, only supposed to be used if the government can demonstrate that there is “no other satisfactory solution.” 

In June this year, in response to our latest submission of evidence relating to the ongoing culling of badgers, the Convention’s Bureau concluded that  “…the maintenance of badger culling is not only inconsistent with the stated policy of the current UK Government, but also of published scientific opinion, whereby in the circumstances of England, badger culling has had no meaningful contribution to the control of bTB in cattle.” The Bureau called on the UK government “to move with greater urgency and progress on the ending of the badger culling policy as there are clear satisfactory alternatives available.” 

In essence, the Bureau’s conclusions finally confirm what we have always claimed – that the culling of badgers under licence contravenes the government’s legal obligations to protect badgers under the Convention. 

In June Natural England, the government agency responsible for wildlife licensing, went ahead and sanctioned further ‘supplementary culls’ across 9 zones, against the advice of its own Director of Science.  

Shockingly, and in spite of the Bern Convention’s findings, and the fact that Natural England’s Director of Science once again advised against further culls, the government seems likely to have reissued intensive culling licences for a further 11 zones this autumn. Unusually, no announcement of the renewed licences has yet been published. Born Free has written to DEFRA asking for confirmation of its intentions. 

Born Free’s Head of Policy Dr Mark Jones said: “The Bern Convention demands that signatories promote conservation policies and avoid measures harmful to protected species, yet the UK Government seems determined to continue to implement a policy which has been widely discredited by independent scientists and condemned by wildlife protection groups, that the Labour Party itself described as ‘ineffective’ in its 2024 election manifesto, and that the licensing authority’s Director of Science has repeatedly advised against.

“The outcome of the Bern Convention in June should have been a transformative moment, giving this government a way of ending this disastrous policy. Instead the government seems determined to placate those in the farming industry who continue to insist on blaming wildlife for what is clearly a disease problem created by the way we manage cattle in this country. One more dead badger is one too many. We implore the government to bring the culling of badgers to an immediate and permanent end, and to initiate meaningful and inclusive dialogue with all stakeholders on alternative strategies for controlling bovine TB among cattle.”

Learn more about Born Free’s efforts to end the unscientific, ineffective, inhumane and unnecessary culling of badgers in England:

Badger Culling

Read the outcome of the Bern Convention’s June Bureau meeting here