Badger cull policing cost £800,000 in one county

Opponents of cull say cost of 1,000 per animal killed means it is wasteful as well as cruel

The cost of policing the controversial badger cull in just one of the 21 zones last autumn approached the 1m mark - the equivalent of more than 1,000 for every animal killed there.

Objectors to the cull described the bill for Cheshire as a horrendous waste of public money and called for the policy to be scrapped on economic as well as animal cruelty grounds.