Application submitted to extend badger cull in Gloucestershire
AS the six-week pilot badger cull in Gloucestershire comes to an end, an application has been made to Natural England to extend the culling period under measures to help control bovine TB (bTB).
The chief veterinary officer recommended on October 17 the period of culling in Gloucestershire be increased, after only 30 per cent of the local badger population was killed during the six-week trial. The target was for a 70 per cent cull rate. The badger population in the area was reported by Defra to have fallen from 3,400 last summer to 2,350 immediately before the cull.
In a statement, Defra secretary of state Owen Paterson, said: In view of this, the chief veterinary officer has advised the period of culling this year should be extended to achieve the earliest and greatest
possible impact on bTB in Gloucestershire. Natural England is therefore considering an application for an extension from the cull company in Gloucestershire.
"I have always been clear that both the Somerset and Gloucestershire culls are pilots. This has enabled us to test the safety, humaneness and effectiveness of controlled shooting as a means of reducing badger numbers
and so reduce significantly disease in cattle. Having the two separate pilot areas has similarly enabled us to see how environmental factors, field and other conditions affect the practical delivery of our objectives."
On October 14, a licence was granted to extend the badger cull in Somerset for a further three weeks. During the original six-week cull period, 850 badgers were shot. The minimum number of badgers to be culled under this new licence is 165, with a maximum number of 282, Defra confirmed.
Long-term anti-cull protesters, the RSPCA, have dubbed the situation "a shambles". RSPCA chief executive Gavin Grant said:
“The Government is making a mockery of scientific opinion and their own targets by continuing with this cull – it is a complete shambles. Badgers are dying in their hundreds and it is likely bTB in cattle in these areas is being made worse not better.
"The six-week trials were intended as a way of testing the effectiveness and humaneness of shooting badgers as a means of controlling bTB in cattle and this has clearly failed. An immediate stop must be put to this fiasco before more animal lives are lost and the spread of this devastating disease made worse.”
Following the trial culls, an independent panel of experts will report and Defra will consider the information these pilots have generated, to inform the next steps to take in the fight against bTB.
