Cull licensing body Natural England has today issued letters allowing cull companies to resume 'controlled shooting' of badgers in two areas of Somerset and Gloucestershire.

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Contractors will be allowed to kill between 931 and 1,876 badgers across the two zones this year. Cull companies will decide upon a start date on an individual basis. Natural England said that new measures had been put into place in line with recommendations made by the Independent Expert Panel charged with assessing the first year of culling.

Wildlife groups opposing the cull, however, maintain that the government's chosen course of action is "inhumane, unscientific and ineffective" and reiterated on Tuesday that the majority of independent scientists oppose the badger cull policy.  

Mark Jones, veterinarian and executive director of the Humane Society International, said, "It beggars belief that… Natural England has seen fit to authorise another cull despite its own chief scientific advisor describing last year's cull as an 'epic failure', the Independent Expert Panel concluding that it was inhumane and ineffective, and an ongoing police investigation into protocol breaches by culling contractors last Autumn which may have constituted serious public safety risks."

Jones added, "In any other circumstances it would be unthinkable to proceed, but the fact that Natural England has issued a green light demonstrates how deeply political and cynical this process is, and how far away we now are from the 'science-led' policy promised in the Coalition Agreement."

The cull is authorised to take place under the existing four-year licences which allow six weeks of culling every year between 1 June and 31 January. Cage-trapping and shooting can take place between now and 31 November, whilst 'controlled shooting' can take place between now and 31 January 2015.

The government decided not to extend the badger cull to new areas earlier in the year, after the IEP judged that Defra's policy had failed to meet the department's self-set standards for humaneness and effectiveness.