More than 100,000 badgers have now died in the Government's controversial cull, we can reveal. Last autumn's scheme saw 35,034 of the creatures killed, taking to 102,188 the death toll since the programme began in 2013.
The 2019 total outstrips the 2018 figure of 32,601. However, it is far below the numbers the that could have been killed under Government licences; nearly 63,000 could have been culled.
The scheme operated in 40 areas of England from Cornwall to Cumbria. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs announced this month(MAR) it will gradually phase out "intensive culling" following a breakthrough by the Animal and Plant Health Agency.