Controversial badger cull on its way to Northamptonshire

A licence is being considered and the county's badger group fears the cull could begin before the year's out

By Sarah Ward

Badgers have been culled in parts of England since 2013.

The first ever legal cull of the county’s badger population is on the horizon.

An expression of interest for a badger control licence for Northamptonshire has been submitted to Natural England and it is thought the cull will take place in the South West of the county - the area where the most instances of Bovine TB have occurred.

The Conservative government introduced the controversial practice of badger culling back in 2013 and it is thought that more than 100,000 badgers have been killed since then.

Under the guidelines a cull company has to be set up to carry out the killing of the protected wild mammal. The area to be culled has to be a continuous stretch of land and landowners typically join forces to form a cull zone. 

The government is currently consulting on phasing out the intensive culling and instead look at other practices to get rid of Bovine TB, but the Northamptonshire cull is likely to take place before …