WEST Somerset's extended badger cull failed to meet its revised lower target, with 940 animals killed over a nine-week period.

The cull - the first year of a four-year trial - was originally planned to take place over six weeks but was extended by a further three weeks when shooters missed their original target of culling 2,081 badgers.

When just 840 had been shot at the end of the six weeks, Owen Paterson, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs infamously declared the badgers had "moved the goalposts".

He said West Somerset's badger population had been overestimated and revised the shooters' target down to 1,015 animals as Natural England granted a three-week extension to the cull period.

In a written statement to Parliament on Tuesday, Mr Paterson said the extension had been a success as 90 more badgers had been "removed", bringing the overall cull total to 940 animals.

He said: "This represents a reduction of 65 per cent in the estimated badger population before culling began.

"This will deliver clear disease benefits as part of a four-year cull in the area.

"Before the extension was licensed by Natural England, the advice of the chief veterinary officer was that a further increase in the number of badgers culled after the initial six-week period would improve the disease control benefits achieved even further and enable them to accrue earlier.

"With the further removal of badgers seen, the extension has been successful in meeting this aim."

He said the cull was just one element of Government plans to try and reduce the occurrence of bovine TB in cattle and said the West Somerset pilot was designed to test if shooting badgers was "safe, humane and effective".

In his statement, he said: "While conclusions will need to await the findings of the independent panel of experts, current indications also suggest that the pilot has been safe and humane."

Mr Paterson added: "I would like to pay tribute to the local farmers and landowners who have undertaken the cull, often in difficult terrain and weather and often in the face of intimidation by a small minority who are determined to stop this disease control policy.

"Successfully tackling bovine TB in the badger population is a key element in our strategy to rid England of this disease within 25 years.

"It is this broad strategy, of which badger control is one component."

Opponents to the cull claimed the final kill figure proved the exercise had been "a spectacular failure".