ANIMAL rights activists are claiming a victory following the news that the extended period for the badger cull in West Gloucestershire has been stopped, three weeks early.

Following on from the news that only around 40 per cent of the target number of badgers had been killed, the decision was made to call off the trapping and night shooting of badgers.

Activists claim that their actions in the designated area where the cull was taking place had kept the animals in their setts, plus they had located the wire cage traps that had been set on farmland, thus further hampering the contractors, and reducing the potential number of badgers that could be taken.

Andy Farnham of Coleford was one protester who spent his evenings in the past few weeks walking in the designated cull area. He said: "The stopping of this monstrous and useless cull of our native animal, the badgers, is proof that this whole project was flawed from the start. We can only hope that the government and Defra see sense and give up this idea, which has been proved to actually increase bovine TB in cattle and not reduce it."

But farming minister Owen Patterson has condemned the activists actions, and has repeated the claim made by Forest of Dean MP Mark Harper last week that they had been acting criminally and illegally.

Campaign group Gloucestershire Against Badger Shooting (GABS) released a statement in which they said: 'Campaign groups like GABS, who organised the Wounded Badger Patrols in the county, have always argued that there are more effective and positive ways of tackling bovine TB.

'As well as the risk of spreading the disease through perturbation, the cull has cost over £1m in policing in the first six weeks alone, (£1,400 per badger), and has had a negative impact on local communities.'

Perturbation is where badgers are displaced from their home area, through being frightened by the cull and who may then travel and carry the disease into areas previously unaffected by bovine TB.

Police and Crime Commissioner for Gloucestershire, Martin Surl also issued a statement: "I believe the decision by Natural England and the cull company is the right one for our communities in Gloucestershire.

"I would like to thank the constabulary and other forces for heir hard work in keeping the peace, responding to any crime and disorder and enabling people to protest peacefully and lawfully."

•Meanwhile the Welsh Government have extended a window for farmers to apply for a grant to take part in a project in Wales to vaccinate badgers against bovine TB. £250,000 is being made available by the Badger Vaccination Group to farmers and landowners who wish to vaccinate their badgers, the grant covering up to half of the total costs.

The application window, which was to close on December 13, will now be extended until February 28 2014.