A scientifically and politically controversial cull of badgers in England will be initially be allowed only in two pilot areas, the UK’s environment secretary Caroline Spelman announced today.

Spelman said she was “strongly minded” to allow a “science-led” cull in areas worst affected by bovine tuberculosis.

How ‘science-led’ the government’s policy on badger culling and bovie-TB actually is has been a fraught topic recently. There is some evidence from the government-funded Randomised Badger Culling Trial that carefully controlled culling of badgers can reduce the disease. However, culling can also backfire if infected badgers are disturbed and leave their territories due to ineffective culling, spreading the disease as they move.

Experts have previously clashed about how scientific government proposals from last year are. Specifically about how effective the proposed culls would be. The randomised trial used highly trained specialists, whereas the government is proposing licensing farmers to kill the badgers themselves.

Today Spelman announced that further consultation would be undertaken on the implementation of the proposals, which will then go ahead in two areas. Crucially, shooting of free roaming badgers would be allowed, something some experts from the randomised culling trial have previously cautioned against.

Farmers have been keen to be allowed to shoot badgers without trapping them, as this is significantly cheaper. Under the now-revised proposals, those wishing to shoot badgers in the field would need to demonstrate general marksmanship skills and be trained in how to shoot the animals.

Image: photo by Lance Fisher via Flickr under creative commons.

Box: information from DEFRA.