The department of Biology at the University of Oxford is facing calls for action against badger culling in Oxfordshire in a petition presented to the department on April 17. Cherwell can confirm the receipt of the petition by the Department of Biology. The Oxfordshire Badger Group has accrued nearly 20,000 signatures on change.org. It calls attention to the “misuse’’ of research from the Department of Biology by the government to justify the badger cull, and urges scientists to “[deploy] their scientific authority’’ to help end it.
Despite badgers being a legally protected wild animal in the UK, the cull is mandated by the Department for Environmental, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) as a mitigation tactic against bovine tuberculosis (bTB). Current DEFRA policy holds that culling is an effective means to reduce the transmission of bTB from badgers to cattle.
Parliament responded to a previous petition against culling in 2016 with over 108,000 signatures by arguing that there was a “broad scientific consensus’’ on the role of badgers in the spread of bTB, and that they were determined to “use all available measures necessary to eradicate the disease as quickly as possible.”
According to DEFRA statistics, over 210,000 badgers have been culled nationwide as of 2024, although badger protection groups estimate a figure between 230,000 to 250,000. Recently, the controversial introduction of “epidemiological culling’’ has been proposed, which could reduce the badger populations to almost zero in high-risk bTB areas according to the Oxfordshire Badger Group.
The petition was presented with an open letter to the Department of Biology, following the opening of a public consultation by DEFRA on badger control policies. It points out how the research from the University demonstrated that culling badgers would “not help control bovine TB…yet the government simply overturned your conclusions to justify introducing badger culling. Many of you vocally opposed this in 2012 and 2015 but you were ignored. Now 250,000 mostly healthy badgers are dead.’’
Oxfordshire Badger Group views the region as “a heartland for badgers over the centuries’’. Previously, the group has also taken to the streets, holding protests outside the Biology Department and some colleges, such as Merton.
Eileen Anderson, trustee of the Oxfordshire Badger Group, told Cherwell: “We think Oxford scientists should give DEFRA the benefit of their expert opinion. Their silence means that the scientific debate is highly polarised. That allows politicians to cherry pick evidence to support killing badgers. That’s not good for science, for badgers or for cattle farmers.’’
Cherwell received the following response from the Biology Department via the University News Office: “As a department committed to scientific inquiry, we prioritise academic freedom of speech and support the right of individuals to engage in constructive discourse around causes they believe in, including relevant petitions.”
The DEFRA consultation was initially set to close on April 22, but the closing date has since been extended to May 13. Oxfordshire Badger Group told Cherwell that the extension was “in response to legal pressure applied by our friends at the Badger Trust and Wild Justice, challenging the lack of information and problems with interpretation of the consultation.”
