A licence has been issued to start culling badgers in Somerset again - but is so heavily edited it is not shown where the killing can take place.

The licence for the Somerset cull has been issued by Natural England today (May 25) along with those for nine areas - five of which are in Devon.

Under the terms of the licence badgers can be shot from June until November once they have been trapped, and longer until January 2024 for what is called controlled shooting.

Specifically the licence states that the cull will :

"to take and kill badgers (Meles meles) within the area specified in Annex A ("the Control Area") for the purposes of carrying out a Supplementary Cull during each Open Season in which this licence is in force by the methods, and in the periods, specified below, for the purpose of preventing the spread of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) subject to the Conditions specified overleaf. Method(s) of taking and killing permitted by this licence The Open Season (all dates are inclusive) Live-capture cage trapping and humane dispatch of trapped badgers by shooting 1 June - 30 November Controlled shooting of badgers 1 June - 31 January"

One of the conditions in the licence is: "Traps may only be set, live badgers may only be handled, and badgers may only be killed by or on behalf of the Licence Holder by persons identified by Natural England as Additional Authorised Persons."

You can see the other licences that have been granted and details HERE:

The issue of culling badgers is controversial.

Badgers are known to carry bovine TB and farmers believe they help spread it to cattle.

DEFRA insist that there has been a reduction in officially TB free withdrawn herd incidence of 45% in the third year of culling and 50% in the fourth year of culling. But opponents quote the Veterinary Record which last year published a report from scientists who opposed the cull, claiming it "cost a fortune and saved nothing."

In the ten years that badger culling has been licenced an estimated 140,000 badgers have been killed