Badger culling zones have been extended to West Berkshire and Hampshire by Natural England

BADGER culling zones have been extended allowing the shooting of badgers in seven new areas including Berkshire and Hampshire.

Natural England approved the new areas on Tuesday (September 7), bringing the total number of culling zones in the UK to 61.

This will mean more than 60,000 badgers will be killed.

Badger culling began in 2013 in an effort to protect cattle from Bovine TB, which is one of the “most difficult and intractable” animal health challenges according to environmental secretary George Eustice.

Wildlife advocate with Born Free, Dominic Dyer, spoke out against the move.

He said: “The Government has wasted an estimated £70m of public funds shooting badgers across England from Cornwall to Cumbria, but to date has produced no reliable evidence to prove that this mass destruction of a protected species is having any impact on lowering bovine TB in cattle in or around the cull zones.”

Mr Dyer added: “It’s time to stop playing the badger blame game and focus on controlling the spread of bovine TB in cattle, which is better for farmers, taxpayers and the future of our precious wildlife.”

Ken Neal, of Bunker Farm, Basingstoke Road, Newbury, said: "Badger culling has been successful in several other countries, including Ireland.

"Where it has been carried out it is reduced infection."

He said that the overall badger population is on the increase.

He added: "Farmers don’t want badgers killed off."

Badger Trust executive directorAdam Laidla, said: “Today Natural England has unleashed fresh horrors on badgers with the publication of seven more badger cull licences.

"Licences to kill badgers now cover almost 25% of England’s entire land area.

He added: "This Government sanctioned senseless slaughter of badgers has to end."

Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust mammal project manager Julia Lofthouse said: "As a trust, we are absolutely heartbroken by this news.

"Badgers are magnificent icons of the British countryside and the emblem of the Wildlife Trusts, and our Government has allowed thousands of them be needlessly slaughtered.

"We do sympathise with the plight of farmers and know the hardship that bovine TB causes, but culling badgers is not the answer.

"The Government has seen no definitive benefits from seven years of industry-led culling of badgers in England. The science tells us the main route of bovine TB transmission is between cattle – not from wildlife such as badgers.”

Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust chief executive Estelle Bailey called culling “outdated, ineffective and immoral” in an online statement on its website.

She said: “This Government has repeatedly said it will be guided by the science, yet it seems to be ignoring its own advice.”

Some of the zones in Berkshire and Hampshire include: Aldermaston gravel pits, Ashridge Wood, Averys Pightle, Bowdown and Chamberhouse, Boxford Chalk Pit, Brimpton Pit, Boxford Water Meadows, Briff Lane Meadows, Catmore and Winterly Copses, Cold Ash Quarry, Combe Wood and Linkenholt Hanging, Coombe Wood Frilsham , Croker's Hole, Easton Farm Meadow, Decoy Pit , Pools & Woods, Enborne Copse, Fognam Chalk Quarry, Freeman's Marsh, Greenham and Crookham Commons, Hampstead Marshall Pit, Hogs Hole, Hollies Down, Inkpen and Walbury Hills, Inkpen Comon, Inkpen Crocus Fields, Irish Hill Copse, Kennet and Lambourn Floodplain, Kennet Valley Alderwoods, Kings Copse, Lardon Chase, Old Copse, Beenham, Parkfarm Down, Pincent's Kiln, River Kennet , Redhill Wood, River Lambourne, Seven Barrows, Snelsmore Common, Streatley Warren, Sulham and Tidmarsh Woods and Meadows, Thatcham Reed Beds, Wasing Wood Ponds, Westfield Farm Chalk Bank, West Woodhay Down, West's Meadow, Aldermaston, White Shute, Winterbourne Chalk Pit, Woolhaption Reed Bed, Ashford Hill Woods and Meadow, Burghclere Beacon, Highclere Park, Ladle Hill, Old Burghclere Lime Quarry, Pamber Forest and Silchester Common, Ron Ward's Meadow with Tadley Pastures, West Woodhay Down, among others.