I write in response to the Debate article by Alick Simmons on the ethics of badger culling ( VR , 21 March 2020, vol 186, pp 357-358). He lists questions on ethical wildlife control compiled by Dubois and others,1 who accept that culling can ‘be justified by evidence that significant harms are being caused to people, property, livelihoods, ecosystems and/or other animals’, and supplies his answers. One question is ‘Are the decisions warranted by the specifics of the …