Badger cull extended for three weeks

Natural England said they had granted a new licence for a three-week control operation in west Somerset this autumn.

An application to extend the cull in the second pilot area – west Gloucestershire – has also been received.

The agency said in a statement: “The new licence authorises a three-week control operation to be carried out this autumn and supplements that authorised under the original four-year licence granted in October last year.

“The new licence allows the licensee to continue culling and specifies a minimum number of 165 and a maximum number of 282 to deliver disease control benefits while reducing the risk of local extinction.

“An application to extend culling in west Gloucestershire has also been received by Natural England and will be processed in due course.”

The trial is designed to combat the spread of bovine tuberculosis, but scientists are divided over whether a wider cull will help prevent transmission to cattle.

Read more: FactCheck - the badger cull

Earlier this week the environment secretary, Owen Paterson, admitted that the shooters had failed to hit their target of eradicating 70 per cent of badgers in the pilot areas.

They had killed about 60 per cent of the population, but only because estimates of the local badger population were revised downwards during the cull.

Mr Paterson was mocked for blaming the shortfall on the animals themselves when he said during an interview: “The badgers have moved the goalposts.”