This open access book provides the first critical history of the controversy over whether to
cull wild badgers to control the spread of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in British cattle. This
question has plagued several professional generations of politicians policymakers experts and
campaigners since the early 1970s. Questions of what is known who knows who cares who to
trust and what to do about this complex problem have been the source of scientific policy and
increasingly vociferous public debate ever since. This book integrates contemporary history
science and technology studies human-animal relations and policy research to conduct a
cross-cutting analysis. It explores the worldviews of those involved with animal health
disease ecology and badger protection between the 1970s and 1990s before reintegrating them to
investigate the recent public polarisation of the controversy. Finally it asks how we might
move beyond the current impasse.
