Natural England has received applications or expressions of interest for a Badger Disease Control Licence within the counties of Avon, Berkshire, Derbyshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire & Warwickshire.

Announcing a two-week consultation into badger culling, the Government said: “Natural England has received applications or expressions of interest for a Badger Disease Control Licence within the counties of Avon, Berkshire, Derbyshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire and Warwickshire.

“Natural England will consider any impacts on livelihoods and daily activities that are relevant to the applications and/or expressions of interest and may share this information with the relevant applicant, based upon your postcode or specific point of interest.”

In order to legally kill badgers, a Badger Disease Control Licence must first be obtained from the Government.

The person must satisfy a number of criteria, including risk mitigation for surrounding wildlife and the consent of the owners of the land the cull will happen in.

More than 19,000 animals died in last year’s cull across eight English counties: Dorset, Cornwall, Devon, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Cheshire, Somerset and Wiltshire.

image expired

Badger Trust chief executive Dominic Dyer said: “This is rapidly becoming a badger eradication programme from large parts of the country where livestock farming is taking place.”

Animals rights activists had been heartened last month when Environment Secretary Michael Gove refused to commit to continuing with the cull as a way of controlling bovine tuberculosis in cattle.

Mr Gove said: “My whole approach is to be guided by the science.My whole approach is to be guided by the science.What we want to do is progressively reduce and eliminate this disease in a way which ensures that all animals can be better protected from infection. We continually keep under review the best means of doing so.”

Shadow Environment Secretary Sue Hayman accused Mr Gove of “total hypocrisy on animal welfare”.

She said: “Nearly 20,000 badgers were culled last year, the highest number ever, as part of this ineffective and unscientific badger cull.

“This follows the Government’s recent intention to roll out the cull into areas that are designated as ‘low risk’, an approach becoming more unjustifiable with each passing month.

“The Government has no indication of how many badgers being shot are even infected and their free shooting policy raises serious questions about safety and standards.

“If the Tories are so determined to prove their environmental credentials, they should echo Labour’s commitment to halt the badger cull across England, reinstate their independent advisory panel and formally review their policy on how to tackle bovine TB.”

As bovine TB cases continue to rise despite the cull,senior Green politician Keith Taylor added:

"What we need is an urgent and genuine review of the Government’s bTB control policies. If only to reinforce what we already know: the badger cull is a spectacularly expensive, ineffective and downright inhumane policy – condemned by the Government’s own experts and the British Veterinary Association. In the past four years, the Government has massacred 15,000 badgers, at a cost of almost £7,000 a kill.”

For the opportunity to comment on future licenses visit :

https://consult.defra.gov.uk/natural-england/8899f8e7/consultation/intro/