Requests to extend badger culling in the second trial cull zone in Gloucestershire have been dealt a brace of unexpected and crushing blows over the weekend. The Gloucestershire cull company is seeking and extension after markspeople in the zone only managed to kill 30 percent of their newly reduced quota of badgers over the initial six week cull period.  

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Natural England, cull licensing agency and the body responsible for wildlife in the country, is in turmoil, it has been revealed. Natural England is due to deliver a decision on the badger cull extension on Monday, but the Badger Trust is seeking a High Court injunction and one of its senior advisers has publicly advised that the cull be dropped.

On Saturday (19th October), the Badger Trust issued its latest legal challenge to the cull organisers. Bindmans Solicitors, representing the Trust, sent a letter before action to Natural England warning the licensing body that the proposed eight week extension to culling could be illegal.

The letter quotes Defra, its advisors and Chief Veterinary Officer Nigel Gibbens repeatedly defending the six week culling period, over which concerns were raised in consultations over the cull and the Trust's own 2012 legal challenge. Experts had warned that the longer (six week) culling period could deliver unpredictable results and possibly aggravate the perturbation effect (sick badgers fleeing their setts and spreading disease around the edge of areas where culling is taking place), as it differs greatly from the methodology used in the RBCT trials on which Defra has based much of its evidence in developing cull policy.

Environment Secretary Owen Paterson has already been accused of "moving the goalposts" and "gerrymandering" over a series of inconsistencies and last minute revisions in relation to the two culls. An extension of three weeks granted to the Somerset cull company on Friday 11^th October and the latest proposal to more than double the cull period in Gloucestershire have attracted widespread criticism.

Mr Paterson reiterated on Thursday, "I have always been clear that both the Somerset and Gloucestershire culls are pilots… The Gloucestershire pilot has again demonstrated that the cull period may need to be longer than six weeks in future, enabling teams to adapt their approaches to suit local circumstances. We continue to make good progress on all aspects of our draft strategy to eradicate [bovine TB] in England within 25 years."  

Nevertheless, the Badger Trust warned on Saturday that, as the ostensible aim of the culls was to test the efficacy of Defra's chosen 'free-shooting' strategy for badger removal, and less than 70 percent of badgers were killed in each trial cull zone (the target number Defra advisors said would have an impact on TB incidence), "The cull has thus met its purpose in testing the 'effectiveness' (in DEFRA's terms) of culling. It has shown [free-shooting] not to be effective."

On Sunday, David MacDonald, chair of Natural England's Science Advisory Committee and an Oxford University professor called for an immediate end to culling, which he agreed has been shown to be ineffective. Professor MacDonald told The Guardian, "My personal opinion as a biologist [is] not to continue the cull. One could not have significant comfort that the original proposals would deliver gains to farmers. Extending the cull would make the outcome even less predictable and even more unpromising."

He also said the cost of culling is already "punishing" the farming community, and an extension would be incredibly damaging.

Shadow environment minister Huw Irranca-Davies has also written to Natural England, urging the wildlife body not to grant an extension to the Gloucestershire cull. The former environment minister said doing so would forever tarnish the reputation of Natural England, which narrowly survived Conservative attempts to scrap the quango earlier this year.  

Natural England has refused to comment on the extension or the Badger Trust's legal challenge.

Discrepancies between population estimates taken in 2012 and again just before culling started in the two pilot areas of South-West England have added to confusion and controversy surrounding the cull. Population estimates were seen to drop by around 1,000 badgers at the two sites, though monitored badger populations elsewhere appear to have remained stable. Owen Paterson has assured that the causes of these changes to estimates (the third such revisions in less than 12 months) are natural – the results of disease and a harsh, wet winter – but evidence is stacking up to suggest that interference by protestors or illegal persecution of badgers are behind the population estimates.