Badger cull ends as final figures are published

England’s 13-year badger cull is over, with Natural England confirming on 30 July that every intensive and supplementary culling licence has ended and the last, in Cumbria, will not be renewed. The final season’s monitoring figures show 2,897 badgers were removed across the 12 final areas last autumn, with a further 3,261 taken under supplementary licences.

What do the final badger cull figures show?

Natural England’s summary of 2025 operations covers the final year of licensed culling, which ran from June 2025 to January 2026. Marksmen and trapping teams in 12 areas, from Buckinghamshire and Cornwall to a low-risk area operation in Cumbria, removed 2,897 badgers between 3 September and 27 October, most by controlled shooting.

Nine supplementary areas, including Shropshire, Somerset and Herefordshire, accounted for a further 3,261 badgers in operations that closed on 14 January. Natural England confirmed that “all intensive badger culling licences in the High Risk and Edge Areas have ended” and that every supplementary licence has now ended too.

The Badger Trust, which opposed the cull throughout, calculates that 254,038 badgers have been killed since the policy began in Somerset and Gloucestershire in 2013 – equivalent, it says, to more than half the badger population estimated in England in the last national survey.

Why is the last licence not being renewed?

The chief veterinary officer, Professor Christine Middlemiss, advised that infection levels in badgers removed from the final Cumbrian area were low and that vaccination could be as effective as continued culling. “The badger culling licence for Area 73 will not be renewed by Natural England and badger culling will not take place in Area 73 in 2026,” she said. Badger vaccination has been deployed in the area for 2026.

The decision draws a line under a policy that grew, at its height, to 73 licensed cull areas. Announcing the wind-down last autumn, the then Defra minister Angela Eagle, now the Environment Secretary, told MPs: “The badger cull is ending. The 2025 season is now nearly over, and this is the final year of industry-led culling in England’s high-risk and edge areas.”

What does the end of the cull mean for farmers and keepers?

Bovine TB remains a live threat to cattle farming, and with it to the keepers and shoots whose ground sits alongside beef and dairy holdings. Figures cited by the Badger Trust show almost 20,000 cattle were slaughtered in the latest 12-month period, with nearly 2,000 new herd breakdowns.

The farming industry has long defended targeted culling. The National Farmers’ Union’s standing position, set out by its president Tom Bradshaw when the end of the cull was announced, is that “peer-reviewed scientific papers show that targeted badger culling provides success and has a part to play in a strategy where there is evidence that it is the right tool to contain and reduce TB”.

Badger Trust chief executive Nigel Palmer said: “After more than a decade, it is time to stop the badger blame game and focus on evidence-led measures that tackle this disease where it has the greatest impact – in cattle.”

What happens next

The Government has promised a new bovine TB strategy intended to deliver an England free of the disease by 2038, built on strengthened cattle testing and surveillance alongside badger vaccination. Defra has said cattle measures are, and always have been, the foundation of its approach.

The full monitoring reports, including area-by-area figures for the 2025 operations, can be read in Natural England’s publication Bovine TB: summary of badger control monitoring during 2025 on gov.uk.

Links

Natural England

Badger Trust

Frequently asked questions

When did the badger cull end in England?

The final licensed operations ran from June 2025 to January 2026. Natural England confirmed on 30 July 2026 that every intensive and supplementary licence has ended and the last remaining licence, in Cumbria, will not be renewed.

How many badgers were killed in the badger cull?

Natural England’s final-season figures show 2,897 badgers removed in the 2025 intensive operations and 3,261 under supplementary licences. The Badger Trust calculates the total since 2013 at 254,038.

What replaces culling in the fight against bovine TB?

Badger vaccination has been deployed in the final Cumbrian area for 2026, alongside strengthened cattle testing and surveillance, ahead of a new Government strategy aiming for an England free of bovine TB by 2038.

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