In England, the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 restricts the killing, injuring, or taking or badgers, or interference with their setts. The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 provides protection against certain methods of killing or taking. Badger persecution is one of seven UK wildlife crime priorities, which are assessed as posing the greatest current threat to either the conservation status of a species, or which show the highest volume of crime, and therefore they are assessed as requiring an immediate UK-wide response.
The Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021 brought in tougher sentences for animal cruelty, raising the maximum prison sentence from six months to five years. As well as a prison sentence, offenders can also receive an unlimited fine. This means that the UK has some of the toughest sentences for animal cruelty in Europe, ensuring that courts are able to enforce extended penalties for those who cruelly mistreat any animal, sending a clear message that animal cruelty will not be tolerated.
Regarding the recent cull of badgers in England, Ministers only ever envisaged that the badger cull would be a phase in the strategy to reduce the weight of bovine TB in the wildlife population. A consultation, which has now ended, set out how they intend to phase out culling and accelerate the next phases of the strategy, especially improved diagnostic testing. This consultation also included proposals to stop issuing intensive cull licences for new areas after 2022 and would enable new licences to be cut short after two or three years based on a review of the latest scientific evidence at that time.
Under the new proposals, any new supplementary cull licences, which are granted in regions after intensive culls are complete, would be restricted to two years and would not be reissued afterward. Some form of culling would continue to be an option in exceptional circumstances to address any local disease flare-ups. The Secretary of State has noted the range of responses to the consultation and these have raised some important considerations for how the delivery of the Government’s strategy is shaped and managed on the ground.