The Canary sings: government adds multiple extensions to existing badger cull areas

Last Friday, The Canary online  published a story about how large scale badger culling continues to be extended, despite government claims in 2020 that it is being phased out. 

It reports on Freedom Of Information disclosures that show  Natural England approved 10 cull extensions in 2022 in addition to declaring new areas. This amounted to badger killing on an additional 327km2 of land. In 2021, it greenlit eight extension areas totalling 342km2 in all. Natural England  effectively confirmed that extensions are again likely for 2023 by indicating that these are “in course of completion”. 

It’s a deeply disappointing story of more and more healthy animals being mass killed  by stealth, just in case they are involved in the cattle TB epidemic and despite latest published peer- reviewed science showing badger culling has no effect on herd breakdowns. You can read the full article here.