The team in charge of the controversial Somerset badger cull has applied for an extension of the cull by up to three weeks, after it emerged they had failed to reach their targets.
Sources at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) say that 850 badgers have been shot in the area over the six-week trial, just over 40% of an initial target of 2,081.
The pilot cull set out to study if badgers could be killed safely, effectively and humanely. The plan was to kill 70% of the badgers in the areas of west Somerset and Gloucestershire by free shooting. Across both regions this meant around 5,000 badgers were to be killed in total.
"I would stop the culls now," said the UK's leading badger expert, Prof Rosie Woodroffe. "They have failed to meet the legal licensing target. There are now many serious questions about this whole approach to TB control."
Environment secretary Owen Paterson has argued the cull is an essential part of TB control but leading scientists have dismissed the policy as "mindless" and a "costly distraction" from improving vaccination and controls on cattle movements.
Defra sources said the culling teams were seeking a two to three week extension, to begin within days in Somerset, where the strict six-week culling period ended on Monday. "Extending the cull still further will potentially cause more damage as culls conducted more slowly have a substantially greater impact in raising TB infections," Woodroffe said.
