The badger cull death toll has passed 200,000, latest figures reveal - with wildlife campaigners warning of “empty setts” across the country.
A report by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs quietly slipped out while Parliament is in recess revealed 33,627 of the creatures were slaughtered last year.
Added to the 174,517 killed since 2013 under efforts to curb the spread of tuberculosis in cattle, it takes the total number of badgers culled in the decade-long programme to 208,144.
Badger Trust executive director Peter Hambly said: “Badger setts across England are lying empty for the first time in history.
“One of our most iconic native wild animals is being wiped from parts of our natural landscape because of the badger cull.
“In just a decade, half of our population of badgers has been killed.”
Cull supporters blame the animals for fuelling the spread of TB across the countryside, with more than 38,000 cattle slaughtered in England and Wales in 2021 to tackle the disease, which costs taxpayers about £100million a year.
The Mirror told last November how up to 67,801 badgers faced being killed over the autumn and winter across 21 counties: Gloucestershire, Somerset, Cornwall, Devon, Herefordshire, Cheshire, Wiltshire, Staffordhshire, Cumbria, Avon, Shropshire, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Lincolnshire, Hampshire, Berkshire and Worcestershire.
Figures posed on Defra’s website earlier this weel revealed the total number killed in 2022.
UK Chief Veterinary Officer Christine Middlemiss said: “Natural England’s Chief Scientist and I have concluded that all areas delivered sufficient levels of coverage and effort required to be confident of achieving disease control benefits.”
She added: “The results from 2022 indicate that all 40 badger control companies have delivered the level of badger removal required to be confident of disease control benefits and that the operations were carried out to a high standard of public safety.”
Cull opponents want farmers to implement tougher biosecurity measures and hope a vaccine could eventually end the cull.
Campaigners have pinned their hopes on a jab which could protect cattle.
In February, the Animal and Plant Health Agency said field trials for a cow inoculation and new skin test for bTB have moved to the next phase.
The Government said at the time: “If the second phase is successful, we will be closer to being able to vaccinate cattle against this endemic disease.”
Mr Hambly said today: “We know killing badgers isn’t the way to control bovine tuberculosis.
“Scientific research repeatedly proves that badger culling doesn’t work, so why won’t Defra end the badger cull and concentrate on more effective disease-control methods that will make a lasting difference to English farmers - enhanced biosecurity such as restricting cattle movements, more effective cattle testing and cattle vaccination?”
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