Badger - Humans

Humans

For more details on Badgers and bovine tuberculosis, see Eurasian badger.

Hunting badgers is common in many countries. Manipulating the badger population is prohibited in many European countries, as badgers are listed in the Berne Convention, but they are not otherwise the subject of any international treaty or legislation.

The blood sport of badger-baiting was outlawed in the United Kingdom by the Cruelty to Animals Act 1835, as well as the Protection of Badgers Act 1992, which makes it a serious offence to kill, injure or take a badger, or to damage or interfere with a sett unless a license is obtained from a statutory authority. An exemption that allowed fox hunters to loosely block setts to prevent chased foxes escaping into them was brought to an end with the passage of the Hunting Act 2004.

Many badgers in Europe were gassed during the 1960s and 1970s to control rabies. Until the 1980s, badger culling in the United Kingdom was undertaken in the form of gassing, to control the spread of bovine tuberculosis (bTB). Limited culling resumed in 1998 as part of a 10-year randomised trial cull initiated by John Krebs, which despite a 16% reduction of confirmed new incidence of TB in cattle, was considered by Krebs to show that culling was "ineffective". Some scientist favoured a programme of vaccination. Despite this advice, the British government announced an intention to reintroduce full culling in 2012, a plan which was later cancelled due to significant opposition and a public petition. A cull is being considered for 2013.

The Dachshund dog breed has a history with badgers; "Dachs" is the German word for badger, and Dachshunds were originally bred to be badger hounds.