Farmers could be allowed to create “badger-free zones” around their farms, allowing them to kill tens of thousands of animals in a massive extension of the government’s culling programme.
Andrea Leadsom, the environment secretary, has suggested that 30 more culling zones could be created. About 10,000 badgers were killed this autumn in the 10 cull areas and more than 14,800 have been killed since culling began in 2013.
Leadsom and Nigel Gibbens, the UK’s chief veterinary officer, say expanding the cull is vital to control bovine TB, which costs taxpayers an estimated £100m a year and saw 28,000 cattle slaughtered in 2015.
Bovine TB is a livestock disease that has been spread to badgers by farmers moving infected cattle around the country.
Dominic Dyer, chief executive of the Badger Trust, said the plan to extend the cull was based on anti-science: “This would give farmers free rein to eradicate badgers when the reality is that most cattle are infected by other livestock. What’s more, it’s mismanagement of livestock that infected badgers in the first place.”