cmsellers wrote:And what's the deal with badger "culls"?
Sometimes there are outbreaks of disease among the badger population, as happened recently. When this happens, it places livestock at risk nationwide, as those diseases can be transmitted to them. As such, it's sometimes necessary to cull the badger population if one of those outbreaks is ongoing.
Unlike fox hunting, badger culls are a debate - one side saying the badgers should live, effectively because they're cute, the other side saying it's more important to protect livestock. I'm definitely on the latter side, as the loss of large amounts of a farmer's livestock is no joke, especially in this economy.