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Government plan to phase out badger cull must mean end to licences now

Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust are joining The Wildlife Trusts nationally in their response to the Government’s consultation on the badger cull for all badger cull licences to stop with immediate effect.

Based on our collective analysis of the consultation, The Wildlife Trusts are calling on the Government to:

1. Stop issuing badger cull licences immediately. This will bring an end to the badger cull sooner than proposed, saving tens of thousands of badgers.

2. Implement a cattle vaccine. Cattle vaccination offers the best long-term way to reduce bovine TB in the cattle population.

3. Review how cattle are transported around the country and ensure measures are in place to prevent infection spread from cattle to cattle.

4. Fast track the transition from culling to badger vaccination

Recent Government proposals suggested an end to granting cull licenses in 2022, but this could still result in another 130,000 badgers being killed over the next four years.

We are calling on the public to respond to the consultation which ends on Wednesday 24th March – and help end the cull. This is the latest step in our fight to end the killing of badgers, a protected species.

We have always been firmly opposed to the badger cull and believe that it is an ineffective tool in the fight against bovine tuberculosis (bTB). To date, over 140,000 badgers have been culled. The proposals recently announced by the Government as part of a consultation process will result in approximately another 130,000 badgers being killed, taking the total to almost 300,000. The total badger population in England and Wales was estimated to be around 485,000 in 2017.

Visit www.wildlifetrusts.org/stand-up-for-badgers to respond to the Government consultation on the badger cull by Wednesday 24th March 2021.