As the badger cull begins for another season, a representative of the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust has referenced a letter reported by newspaper The Independent which indicates that the Government is preparing to consult on new proposals to include the killing the badgers “on a targeted basis” alongside other disease-control measures.
Katie Helps, deputy director of external affairs at DWT issued a statement which said: "This would be a staggering U-turn from its existing commitment to end the badger cull by 2025 and focus on cattle-based measures, supplemented by a badger vaccination programme.
"In 2022, 33,627 badgers were culled nationally, with 1,939 of those here in Derbyshire. Backtracking on its promises to end the cull is outrageous and could result in thousands of healthy badgers being shot across England for years to come.
"We have been keenly watching the progress and outcomes of Defra’s pilot in East Sussex which is exploring whether training landowners to vaccinate badgers on their land could be the future of badger vaccination policy across the UK.
"We were expecting a consultation on how this might inform how it rolls out vaccination schemes at scale going forward this Autumn, but now we are devastated to hear that there may be a consultation is to be held on the badger cull continuing.
"We know that the answer to solving bTB lies with cattle, and it is cattle-based measures that are bringing down bTB rates. England’s cattle-to-cattle disease transmission problem must be urgently resolved through cattle-focused measures such as improved cattle testing and vaccination, enhanced biosecurity and controlling cattle movements.
We call on the government to urgently consult on these measures, not an extended cull. We want to see the future of badger vaccination move forward, an end to the badger cull for good, for the Government to focus on cattle measures instead."