More than one third of England’s badgers now killed as legal battle begins over new Northern Ireland cull

At least a third of England’s badger population has been killed in the government’s drive to stamp out bovine tuberculosis, new figures show.

Last year, 33,687 of the animals were culled, bringing the total since the campaign began in 2013 to at least 175,000. Estimates put England’s badger population at between 400,000 and 500,000.