THE start of the second year of badger culling in Gloucestershire this week has been met with anger by protestors.

Culling contractors in the district are allowed to target and kill between 931 and 1,876 badgers in the district and in Somerset in an attempt to tackle Bovine TB.

The government insists the cull, which started on Monday, is needed but protesters argue shooting is not an effective way of tackling the disease.

Anti badger-cull campaign group, Gloucestershire Against Badger Shooting searched for injured badgers during the 2013 cull.

A spokesman for the group said that in the coming weeks the group will continue to look for the, sadly predictable, wounded badgers from this officially, inhumane and ineffective unscientific slaughter, when we would rather be helping to vaccinate them.

Mark Jones, a Stroud veterinarian and executive director for Humane Society International UK, said: “I am appalled and saddened that this cruel and pointless waste of badgers’ lives is taking place once more in England. Neither DEFRA nor Natural England appear to have learned anything from last year’s events. Independent scientific advice that killing badgers is a waste of time has been eschewed, independent oversight of the culls abandoned.

Team Badger, representing 25 different organisations with a total of over 2 million supporters, is calling for the second year of the badger culls in Somerset and Gloucestershire to be cancelled.

A spokesman said: “In 2013 the culls resulted in more than 1,800 badgers dying in Somerset and Gloucestershire but were found by the Government’s own independent expert panel, to be ineffective and inhumane. Serious questions also remain unanswered about the behaviour of the cull operators and the safety of the culling operation. Despite this, the incoming Secretary of State has decided to continue with the culls, apparently employing a reduced level of monitoring and oversight. Serious concerns about the effectiveness, humaneness and safety of the culls continue.