Maria Eagle MP, Shadow Environment Secretary, responding to the Government’s failure to meet its own goal for reducing the badger population in Somerset by the end of the extended culling period, said:
 
“David Cameron should stop the unscientific mass culling of badgers now that Owen Paterson’s misguided policy has clearly failed. Even after revising downwards the estimated badger population and then extending the cull contrary to the original scientific advice, he has not succeeded in reducing the population by his own stated goal of seventy per cent. Scientists have warned all along that a botched cull is worse than no cull at all. By repeatedly moving the goalposts on his own policy, Owen Paterson has risked the further spread of TB due to prolonged disturbance of local badger populations.”