THE cost of the badger cull pilots in Gloucestershire and Somerset was £4,100 per badger shot, campaigners claim.
Charity Care for the Wild almost doubled its previous estimate, made in October, of £2,200 per animal, and now puts the total cost of the cull trials, which began in August, at £7.3 million.
Taxpayers will pick up £5.8 million of that, with farmers paying directly to cover the direct costs of shooting the 1,771 badgers.