Environment secretary Owen Paterson has declared the extended badger cull in Gloucestershire a success, despite claims by anti-cull campaigners it was abandoned early because it failed to meet its targets.
The cull in West Gloucestershire ended last Saturday (30 November) following discussions between the cull company, Natural England and the National Farmers’ Union.
Defra said the decision was taken based on the decreasing number of badgers seen by contractors in recent weeks, making it unlikely that a further significant reduction in badger numbers would be achieved by continuing with the cull.
The aim of the extension was to achieve the “earliest and greatest” possible impact on bovine tuberculosis in the area, Paterson said in a written ministerial statement issued yesterday.
“The decision to extend has been shown to be the right one, with significant numbers of badgers removed at the point that the extension was ended.”
However, Care for the Wild, which campaigns against the cull, said it had been an “utter failure”. “There would be some joy in saving ‘we told you so’ to the government, but hundreds of badgers have already been killed for absolutely no discernible reason,” said policy advisor Dominic Dyer.
The group organised an anti-cull protest in Bristol on Saturday.
Natural England granted an eight-week extension to the Gloucestershire cull on 23 October.
During the actual extended cull period of five weeks and three days, 213 badgers were “removed” giving an overall total of 921, Paterson added in the statement. This equates to a reduction of just under 40% in the estimated badger population before culling began. The original target was a 70% reduction, but Paterson said the Gloucestershire extension had nevertheless been “successful in meeting its aim in preparing the ground for a fully effective four-year cull”.
In the 10 years to 31 December 2012, more than 305,000 cattle were compulsorily slaughtered because of bovine TB, according to Defra.
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