There is widespread concern in Britain at the Ministry of Agriculture's decision to eliminate all badgers in sets where TB has been proved. Such sets are presently only known in a few small areas in the West Country – see Oryx, October 1975, page 114. The problem concerns bovine TB, which in Britain in the 1930s was estimated to cause at least 2500 human deaths a year (in addition to those caused by human TB), but which has now been almost eliminated with the pasteurisation of milk and the near elimination of the disease in cows by a ruthless slaughter policy. In this article the author explains why this drastic step is considered necessary and why many conservationists have regretfully agreed to support it.