Final signature count: 36,350

36,350 signatures toward our 50,000 goal

Thousands of cattle are euthanized every year in the UK due to bovine tuberculosis, more than 130,000 badgers have been killed since 2013 to stop it, and 60,000 more are about to be needlessly slaughtered for the same reason1.

Bovine TB is transmissible between badgers and cattle, but the Randomized Badger Culling Trial conducted between 1997 and 2010 found that “badger culling can make no meaningful contribution to cattle TB control in Britain2.”

A more humane and cheaper alternative is vaccinating the badgers, which farmers in Wales have been employing for several years. In 2019, 12,189 cattle were slaughtered in Wales due to bovine TB3. In other parts of the UK, as many as 30,000 cattle a year may be euthanized. Stricter cattle testing and movement restrictions paired with badger vaccination have brought the persistence of bovine TB down significantly.

The British parliament promised to phase out the badger cull in the spring of 2020, opting for vaccinating and releasing the animals rather than killing them4, but changed its stance just a few months later.

The UK has since extended the badger cull to 11 new areas of England1. Targeting these animals now is not only a betrayal of trust, it runs contrary to economic sense and science fact.

“… the best estimates show that most cattle herds that acquire TB are infected by other cattle herds,” said Prof Rosie Woodroffe at the Zoological Society of London4.

A major reason for the persistence of bovine TB in the UK is frequent transportation of infected cattle5, coupled with a lack of consistency in sanitation and testing on cattle farms. If these problems are not addressed first, the UK could feasibly exterminate its entire badger population before its bovine TB problem is solved.

But you can help us stop the slaughter.

Add your signature to the petition below and tell the UK government to call off the planned badger cull, opting for vaccinations instead.