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Welfare of culled badgers: development and
evaluation of a closed season
Journal
Animal
Welfare / Volume 14 /
Issue 1 / February 2005
Authors
R Woodroffe,
FJ Bourne,
CL Cheeseman,
DR Cox,
CA Donnelly,
G Gettinby,
JP McInerney,
WI Morrison
Abstract
For the past 25 years, European badgers (Meles meles)
have been subject to culling in Britain in attempts to limit the spread of
tuberculosis (TB) to cattle. As part of a far-reaching evaluation of the
effectiveness and acceptability of badger culling as a TB control measure,
this paper assesses one aspect of the welfare of badger populations
subjected to culling: the killing of breeding females, which risks leaving
their unweaned cubs to starve in the den. To avoid this possibility, a
three-month closed season was adopted, running from 1st February to 30th
April, based on the best available estimates of the timing of birth and
weaning in British badgers. During May 1999–2003, when a total of 4705
adult badgers were culled, field teams failed to capture 12 unweaned
litters when their mothers were despatched. In 31 other cases, lactating
females were culled but litters of almost-weaned cubs were also caught and
despatched at the same dens, usually within a day of capture of the
mother. The number of unweaned cubs missed by culling teams — estimated at
approximately nine per year on average — was dramatically lower than that
projected by a badger welfare lobby group. Our data suggest that the
closed season is effective in reducing the suffering of unweaned cubs in
badger populations subject to culling, and we recommend that this measure
be maintained should badger culling form a component of any future TB
control policy.
Keywords
animal welfare*
bovine tuberculosis*
closed season*
delayed implantation*
embryonic diapause*
European badger
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