Motion #03

Green Party calls for immediate end to badger culling

Motion

The cruel, ineffective badger cull must end immediately to prevent further suffering and local extinctions of badgers, and to accelerate the elimination of bovine TB (bTB) in cattle.

Labour’s 2024 manifesto stated: “… we will work with farmers and scientists on measures to eradicate bovine TB, protecting livelihoods, so that we can end the ineffective badger cull.” On June 29th this was modified: a Labour government would continue to allow pre-existing cull licences, under which the Badger Trust estimates around 100,000 badgers could be killed.

Shockingly, on August 30th the government backtracked further: culling would be “phased out” by 2029.

The Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW) notes that:

• Torgerson et al. (2024, Scientific Reports – Nature) decisively broke the link between badgers and bTB.
• The cull policy is “mindless”, according to Lord Krebs, architect of the culling trials.
• The RSPCA and Wildlife Trusts oppose the cull.

Conference calls for a cattle-based bTB eradication strategy because:

• The “skin test” used to identify infected cattle gives false negatives; diseased cattle remain in herds.
• Dairy-farm biosecurity is compromised by intensive systems; close proximity of cattle faeces, food and water increases spread of disease.
• A bTB cattle vaccination is available but renders further testing for the disease impossible because vaccinated cattle are indistinguishable from infected cattle: further work is needed.

Conference therefore demands an immediate end to the cull and for eradication efforts to focus on cattle-related measures, acknowledging evidence that badgers are not to blame for the spread of bTB.