The RSPCA says it is alarmed that despite what it describes as three years of failed culls, the UK Government is now forging ahead with plans to kill badgers in six different areas.

Three counties, Somerset, Gloucestershire and Dorset were subject to culls in 2015 and now it has been reported Defra will be licensing new areas in north Cornwall, north and south Devon, south Herefordshire and west Dorset despite strong public opposition to the scheme.

The RSPCA is once again renewing calls for the culls to be stopped and instead a more proactive approach with a focus on cattle husbandry through improved biosecurity and better cattle control measures be adopted to tackle the problem of bovine TB.