What have badgers got to do with bird shooting?
Badgers have been hunted, baited, mistreated, exploited, and treated appallingly by humans for centuries.
Both they and their setts are now protected by the Protection of Badgers Act 1992, but since the start of the badger cull – the government-sanctioned killing of a protected species to control Bovine Tuberculosis, a disease of dairy cattle – as many as 250,000 badgers have been shot. The vast majority of these animals have not been tested for TB and most are likely to be completely free of the disease.
Some shooting estates have enthusiastically backed the government-imposed badger cull though – not because of perceived threats to cattle (they don’t have any), but because badgers are omnivores and eat eggs.
That means badgers might put a tiny dent in the profits estates make selling birds to shooters.
There are scores of reliable reports from investigators and monitors of persecution of badgers and illegal interference with badger setts on shooting estates. They frequently report that when shooting syndicates buy woodlands, one of the first things they do is get rid of the badgers that live there.
A recent case involving a ‘sadistic’ gamekeeper from the supposedly prestigious Milden Estate in Scotland showed that estates are harbouring badger baiters too. Rhys Davies was part of an organised gang, whose passion was setting dogs on badgers and foxes.
Protect the Wild is opposed to the badger cull and any wildlife crime involving badgers.
We will continue to write about the cull, create innovative media campaigns, and empower everyone living in or visiting the countryside to recognise wildlife crime and know how to record and report it.
We have commissioned a series of powerful animations designed to highlight the cruelty and futility of the badger cull.
Through our Equipment Fund we’re proud to have been providing trail cams and night vision optics to front-line groups taking direct action in the field to protect badgers.
We’re syndicating the blog posts of the Badger Crowd – a team of specialised ecologists and scientists who focus on badgers and the cull.
We created Protectors of the Wild, a free resource that looks in detail at the laws protecting badgers and other animals. Protectors explains what we can do if we see a wildlife crime taking place.
And we are now calling on an incoming Labour government to honour its promise to stop the badger cull. Join us and sign a letter to the Shadow Environment Secretary today!
