Stop a badger cull in Wales
Thousands of Wales’ 60,000+ badgers could be killed needlessly under a wildlife control cull.
As Wales continues to tackle bovine TB (bTB) in rural communities, the Welsh Government is reviewing plans to explore a badger cull to control the spread of the disease, despite almost 95% of herds in Wales remaining free from disease.
Write to your MS to protect badgers
If you live in Wales, write directly to your MS using the form below, urging them to encourage the Welsh Government to launch a public consultation on a potential badger cull before any decisions are made.
A public consultation will ensure animals' voices are heard and that the love for wildlife protection in Wales is felt by decision makers.
Email your MP here:
Thank you
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Badgers are not to blame
Managing bovine TB can have a significant impact on farmers’ mental health and wellbeing, as well as the health and welfare of their cattle. But badger culling is not the solution.
The science tells us that transmission of the disease between cattle is a far more significant issue than badger-to-cattle transmission, and that there’s an undetected reservoir of the disease in cattle that the current testing regime is not capable of picking up.
We need to see a humane approach to wildlife control; one that protects our wildlife, rather than punishes it.
We believe the most important steps to reducing bovine TB are:
- Use and validation of more sensitive and specific tests for accurately identifying cattle that have bTB
- Strict controls on cattle movement
- Enhanced biosecurity on farms
- Less risky trading
- Development of a cattle vaccination programme
There are currently no other humane alternatives that are both legal and commercially viable for the industry.
Shifting Wales' bovine TB strategy to include culling risks the unnecessary destruction of thousands of badgers. Any new policy must rely on unbiased scientific evidence, robust data, and international insights, rather than opinions or flawed perceptions.
A whopping 98% of people in Wales say protecting Welsh wildlife is important to them. Polling suggests that badgers are a popular wildlife species in Wales, with over 73% choosing them as one they’re most concerned about.
It didn’t work in England, it won’t work in Wales
England has been culling badgers intensively since 2013, with over 247,000 badgers killed as part of its disease prevention programme. However, there’s still no scientific consensus that the culling of badgers has been effective in reducing bTB in cattle in England, with a number of recent peer-reviewed studies finding that culling has no effect on bTB incidence in cattle.
While the long-term data in Wales is variable and has a tendency to fluctuate, the latest statistics show an encouraging picture. In 2025, the number of new herd instances fell by 5%, compared to the previous 12 months and have more than halved since 2012.
Almost 95% of cattle herds in Wales are currently free from bovine TB, despite Wales not culling badgers since 2012.
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