Badger cull campaigners hope a fresh parliamentary showdown will pile pressure on ministers to abandon the controversial scheme.
MPs are due to hear demands for an end to the killing programme, in which 140,830 badgers have been culled since 2013, later this month.
The Commons Petitions Committee will stage a Westminster Hall debate on March 14 after 106,000 people signed a Government e-petition calling for an end to the shooting project.
It said: “This method of culling is inhumane and should be banned immediately.”
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is yet to publish figures for how many of the creatures were killed last year.
But the Badger Trust fears up to 70,000 may have been slaughtered.
Executive director Peter Hambly said: “That would take the number of badgers killed to 200,000, with thousands more due to be culled through to 2025.
“This is both shocking and heartbreaking and makes no sense on scientific, animal welfare or cost grounds.
“Adding to this tragedy, over 75% of the badgers being killed are free shot rather than caged and trapped, and this leads to many painful and drawn out deaths for injured badgers.
“The lack of animal welfare here is appalling.”
Experts blame badgers for spreading bTB around the countryside.
More than 27,000 cattle in England were slaughtered in 2020 to tackle the disease.
Defra hopes to have a jab for cows by 2025, and eradicate bTB by 2035.
Last July, Boris Johnson - whose wife Carrie is a high-profile animal welfare activist - fuelled hopes the cull would be wound down.
He told MPs: “We do think that the badger cull has led to a reduction in the disease but nobody wants to continue with the cull of a protected species – beautiful mammals – indefinitely.”
Yet Natural England is preparing to rule on whether and where this year’s cull can be expanded.
Mr Hambly warned: "The badger cull is a wildlife tragedy with little public support.
“The latest national poll shows support for the badger cull in England is plummeting, with only 15% in favour of the cull.”
He believes badgers may become extinct in some parts of England.
“Many areas will have few or no badgers left,” said Mr Hambly.
“The shooting simply has to stop before this iconic mammal which has been living alongside us for thousands of years disappears from swathes of the countryside."
Labour wants an end to the cull.
Shadow Environment Secretary Jim McMahon said: “Our approach to reducing bovine TB must be science-led, through improved cattle testing, vaccinating badgers and better controls on the movement of herds.”
Responding to the petition, the Government said: “Natural England carries out compliance monitoring and ensures that each cull company has suitable arrangements and plans in place to carry out an operation that is safe, effective and humane.”
A minister will respond in the Westminster Hall debate.
