UK government overturns plans to phase out badger cull

‘Sunak now wants all the badgers dead,’ says ecological consultant Tom Langton

The government has U-turned on its plans to phase out the badger cull, with proposals to exterminate the vast majority of some local populations across much of south-west and central England.

Ministers plan to introduce controversial targeted culling, also known as “epidemiological culling” or “epi-culling”, whereby populations of badgers can be reduced to almost zero in some areas where cattle are deemed to be at high risk of contracting bovine TB (bTB).