The Sussex Wildlife Trust says that as of September 2019, there were 42 badger cull zones across the country, and 35,034 badgers were killed in the period of 2019 to 2020.
When the Government responded to an independent review in 2018, it said the strategy had started to “yield results”, but that it would be phased out over the coming years.
It stated: “Since the initial badger cull pilot in 2013, a policy of badger control has been rolled out in many parts of the High Risk Area (HRA) in the south-west and west of England.
“As of 2019, 57% of the HRA is now subject to a licensed cull of badgers. This policy, while difficult and inevitably contentious, is starting to yield results.
“The latest epidemiological analysis conducted by Downs and others has shown that the incidence of the disease in the first cull areas of Somerset and Gloucester has fallen substantially, by 37% and 66% respectively.”