Govt: Glos badger cull 'a success'

The badger cull extension in Gloucestershire has been hailed a success by the Government. In a statement from DEFRA (Dept. of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), the Government said the five-week cull extension has seen 'significant' numbers of badgers removed.

This is despite the extension ending early, because not enough badgers had been killed. Overall, the badger population was reduced by 40% in the cull zone, against the Government's original target of 70%.

As badger culling ended today a demonstration was held to protest against any attempts to try it again.

Protestors gathered in Bristol for the demo at midday - the moment the cull was officially called off. The animals were being killed to try to stop the spread of TB in cattle.

We spoke to protester Amanda Barrett:

The badger cull in Gloucestershire will officially finish at midday today.

It was announced yesterday that the cull would be ending three weeks early as not enough badgers would be shot.

The badger cull in Gloucestershire is being called off - three weeks early - after it became clear not enough badgers would be shot.

The pilot scheme was extended by eight weeks, which was meant to run until December 18th. An extension to the trial in Somerset also failed to meet its target.

Our Gloucestershire correspondent Ken Goodwin has this report.

Natural England has released a statement giving its reasons why it has chosen to end the extended pilot badger cull in West Gloucestershire early.

Natural England has released a statement saying that it has agreed with the company undertaking the pilot badger cull in west Gloucestershire that culling operations will cease tomorrow (Saturday, 30 November).

It adds that, following discussions with the NFU, the cull company and Natural England, the licence for the extension of this year’s pilot cull will stop with effect from noon on Saturday.

The licence for the cull - which was introduced to curb the spread of TB in cattle had been extended as not enough badgers had been killed for the trial.

Natural England has confirmed to ITV News West Country that the controversial badger cull in Gloucestershire is being called off early.

The licence has been revoked and the cull will end at 12 noon tomorrow (Saturday).

An eight-week extension to the original six-week trial was due to end on December 18, but not enough badgers have been killed to meet the reduced targets.

A planned protest against the cull in Bristol tomorrow is still expected to go ahead.

The Guardian is reporting that the controversial badger cull in Gloucestershire is being abandoned early.

The newspaper says marksmen have failed to kill enough animals to meet even the drastically reduced targets.

The three week extension of the badger cull in Somerset has failed to reach its target.

The Government has announced 90 badgers were killed in the period up to Friday, taking the total number killed in the cull area to 940.

That represents a 65% reduction in the badger population - less than the 70% target.

A similar cull in Gloucestershire has been extended until December 18th.