End the Badger Blame Game Petition

End badger culling and badger vaccination for good.

First name

Last name

Phone

Subject

Letter

To Angela Eagle MP,
Minister of State,
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

We, the undersigned, are calling on you to end the badger blame game and bring an immediate stop to the remaining badger cull in England, including the final Low Risk Area cull currently taking place in Cumbria (Area 73).

More than 250,000 badgers have now been killed in England in the name of controlling bovine tuberculosis. After more than a decade, the evidence is clear: badger culling has failed. It has not eradicated bovine TB, it has not delivered sustained reductions in cattle disease, and it has caused immense and unnecessary suffering to wildlife.

Despite this, the Government is allowing the final badger cull in Cumbria to continue, even though:

TB prevalence in badgers in the area is low

There is no robust scientific evidence that badgers pose a meaningful ongoing risk to cattle in the Low Risk Area

The policy was never designed in a way that allows its effectiveness to be measured

Cattle TB cases in northern England are increasingly linked to the movement of infected cattle, not wildlife

We are deeply concerned that this final cull is being used to defend a failed policy rather than protect animal health.

We are also concerned that the Government now intends to replace killing with badger vaccination, despite the lack of evidence that vaccinating badgers reduces bovine TB in cattle. Badger vaccination does not address the real drivers of the disease and risks prolonging the false narrative that wildlife, rather than cattle management failures, is the primary problem.

Bovine TB is a cattle disease. Its persistence is driven by:

Inadequate testing and known test failures

The movement of infected cattle into new areas

Intensive farming practices and biosecurity failures

Blaming, killing, or vaccinating wildlife does not fix this.

We therefore call on you to:

Stop the remaining badger cull in Cumbria (Area 73) immediately

End all badger culling permanently

Halt the use of badger vaccination as a substitute for culling

Commit fully to cattle-based TB controls that are evidence-led and effective

After more than 250,000 badgers killed, continuing to target wildlife is unjustifiable.

This petition asks you to act now, honour commitments to end badger culling, and bring an end to a decade of cruelty, distraction, and policy failure. The public is watching, and we expect decisive action.

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End badger culling and badger vaccination for good.

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