The Trust has also written open letters to farmers and MPs expressing concern about the hardship farmers face from bovine TB and is asking people to support their public campaign to stop the cull.

A badger cull is expected to be announced shortly and to begin across over 50 areas in England this autumn.

The Wildlife Trusts oppose culling and believe the science used to justify the killing of thousands of badgers every year in the UK is flawed. A recent study by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust has shown that a badger cull cannot be justified in Derbyshire, including in the Government’s own terms, because there is no evidence that TB is endemic in badgers in the county (1). Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust’s own assessment of similar data for Nottinghamshire flags similar concerns.

Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust has been running a successful badger vaccination scheme, part funded by DEFRA, in the Vale of Belvoir on the Notts / Leicestershire border since 2015 and is concerned that a cull will result in vaccinated badgers being shot and disrupt the ability of the programme to expand.  

Erin McDaid, Head of Communications at Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust said “Earlier this year the Government said that it was committed to expanding and supporting vaccination of badgers and phasing out culling. Yet the reality is the complete opposite and for the first time badgers could be shot in Nottinghamshire this autumn. Even the prospect of a local cull has led to a massive reduction in the area where we’ve been able to vaccinate this year and now, with the very real prospect of a cull taking place in Nottinghamshire for the first time the volunteers working on our badger vaccination project and the people who have donated to support this important work will feel betrayed.”

Bovine tuberculosis is a highly infectious disease of cattle which devastates thousands of farming businesses annually. Since the mid-1980s, the incidence of bovine TB in cattle has increased substantially creating an economic burden on the taxpayer and the farming industry, as infected cattle are culled. However, badgers form only one small dimension of the ecology of the disease (2). Badgers are not the primary cause of the spread of bovine TB in cattle, which is via cow-to-cow contact. These cattle based factors are being increasingly recognised as drivers of the disease, particularly cattle movements and slurry management. (3)

Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust has written an open letter to farmers in which they say they have “been poorly served by weak evidence and half-hearted policy changes”, see here. The letter adds, “We are very conscious of the hardship that bovine TB causes in the farming community and the need to find the right mechanisms to control the disease. However, we believe that a badger cull is not the answer and have been vaccinating badgers as a positive alternative.”

The Wildlife Trusts have long advocated for a long-term solution and were pleased to see the Government commitments earlier this year to developing cattle vaccines, improving bio-security on farms and phasing out the culling of badgers announced earlier this year. (4)

Erin added: “Our colleagues at Derbyshire Wildlife Trust ran a highly successful campaign last year and received huge public support which helped to stop a local cull but the threat to badgers remains. The science used to justify any shooting of badgers in Nottinghamshire or anywhere within our project area is flawed. The Government has spent thousands of pounds supporting our badger vaccination project yet they appear to be on the brink of caving into pressure from the National Farmers Union and allow badger culling in our area for the very first time.”

Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust are asking people to support their public campaign to stop the cull coming to Nottinghamshire by signing their online action and contacting their local MP here.

For more information about Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trusts Badger Edge Vaccination Scheme and to use the easy action to write to your MP to oppose the cull click the button below.

Take action now!