BADGER PERSECUTION - WHAT IT IS AND HOW YOU CAN HELP
Badger persecution takes many forms: including digging a badger sett, baiting the badger, interferring with a badger sett, blocking a sett, shooting, lamping, gassing and poisioning. Also a badger sett can be destroyed due to forestry work, housing development, farming operations such as ploughing and harvesting crops and also road construction. So although badgers and their setts are protected under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992, they still face great persecution and that is why badgers need our help.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
MONITORING SETTS
By monitoring setts you are helping to protect it. By keeping accurate and up to date records and taking images and videos, you are helping to protect that sett. If you find a dug sett, ring it in on 101 to get a crime incident number and state that it is a wildlife crime.
CRIME IN PROGRESS
If you stumble upon a dig in progress, ring 999 immediately. Giving a what3words location to the police will help. Whatever you do, don't put yourself in danger or confront them in any way. Write down or take images of any vehicles and the registration numbers. Write down as much as you can about the men, ages, what they are wearing, how many dogs, breed of dogs. Finding a dig in progess is distressing and your mind will undoubtedly panic, but we have found this tip helps:
For each sett you monitor, start a new note on your phone. Give it the title of the Sett, eg
ABBOTT'S WOOD SETT IF ATTACKED - infomation to give to the Police Switchboard
The "what3words" location is:-
tree.field.dyke (just as an example)
It's down the single track road, near three white cottages leading on to Green Lane. Sett is in woodland - 20 metres up on the south side of the dyke.
To prevent the diggers escaping, block off Green Lane and Red Road. Their only other escape route is to leg it across the fields.
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So if you were to panic, and it happens to all of us, by having this note on your phone, you can just read it out calmly, repeating any information as necessary.
ATTEND TRAINING COURSES
By attending training courses you will gain the knowledge required to deal confidently and competently with many situations which may arise as a Badger Sett Monitor.
Can you imagine anyone deliberately hurting these two little cubs? Sadly when badger baiters dig out their mum to fight dogs above ground, cubs just like these are killed in the process. An awful thought isn't it :(
SIGNING IN SHEETS AT SETTS
Many years ago, a sett located in remote woodland in the Selby area was constantly getting dug. Our founder was the only person to watch over this sett at the time and there were no badger groups to whom she could turn to.
In time, she met other people who were interested in badgers and still the sett was getting dug, until one day they were caught in the act, ran back to their car, drove at two police officers and burnt their car out, thus destroying any evidence.
Since that time, we have devised a signing in sheet which is affixed over the sett and everyone who visits, signs it with date, time and remarks.
Since the appearance of this signing in sheet, the sett has not been touched. However, the digging gang, who we had known about for a long time, moved on to dig another sett in Church Fenton and again were caught. This time they weren't lucky enough to escape and were eventually prosecuted.
USE 4G CAMERAS
We have used many Camera Traps since they first appeared on the market. Now we are moving over to the 4G cameras which send images back to your phone immediately they are triggered. So if someone was to attack the sett, you would know about it immediately.
This is a great advantage over the standard SD card cameras, as the crime may have taken place days previously, and its only when you collect the SD card and view it on your computer, that the crime comes to light.
4G cameras are more expensive, but are gradually becoming cheaper and better.
Getting permission from the Landowner to access and place the cameras on their land is advisable and is the courteous thing to do.
TIP: Never edit, crop, or change any images you have captured. Hand everything you have to the police in its original form.
Ensure, AT ALL TIMES, that you have the correct time, date and year on your cameras. It's easy to forget when the clocks move backward or forward.
Red-legged or French Partridge - a game bird
Black Grouse Cockbird - much rarer that the Red Grouse - a game bird
Ring-necked Pheasant cockbird - a game bird
Red Grouse cockbird - a game bird
English or Grey partridges, less common than the Red-legged or French partridges - game birds
COMMON EXCUSES
When caught in the act, badger diggers have some well worn excuses to get them off the hook, here's just a few:-
1. "We're just rabbiting love"
2. "Dog's gone to ground, chased a rabbit he has, so we're digging him out".
How many people do you know that go for a walk into woods carrying spades ?
3. Terrier men can try and use the Gamekeeper's Exemption and say they are removing a fox to protect game birds. If this is so then they would be carrying a gun to despatch the fox and if they have a gun they will of course have a licence for that gun!
All terrier men know when a badger sett is active. They should abide by and work to the standards and advice given by:-
The National Working Terrier Foundation.
THE FIVE RULES FOR THE TERRIERMAN.
For information, “The Five Rules for the Terrierman” as referred to in rule 13. This provides guidance on how to recognise the presence of badgers and the signs normally associated with an active badger sett, in order that both may be avoided at all times.
N.W.T.F. (Formed in 1984)
THE FIVE RULES ARE:
1. LEARN SIGNS OF BADGER AND AVOID THEM.
2. OBTAIN PERMISSION OF THE FARMER, LANDOWNER OR OCCUPIER OF LAND.
3. DO NOT RUN AWAY IF CHALLENGED.
4. JOIN A RECOGNISED TERRIER CLUB.
5. OBSERVE CLUB CODES OF CONDUCT.
On your left you will see five images of gamebirds seen in the countryside and on our moorlands in England. (There are others but they reside solely in Scotland). If a badger sett is dug or interferred with and the Gamekeepers' exemption is used, then some of the birds on the left will be evident.
Having a knowledge of gamebirds and their ecology is useful in these cases. Red Grouse live solely on heather moorlands.
Therefore if a badger sett is dug inside shady woodland bordered by miles of agricultural fields and the Gamekeepers Exemption is used to protect Red Grouse, then the obvious question is "what Red Grouse?" No heather - no grouse !
It is also worth noting that these wildlife criminals often travel across boundaries. Maybe from the North-East to travel into North Yorkshire to dig badgers, so the excuse, "we were just walking our dog and he chased a rabbit down a hole" - doesn't really add up.
It's a long way to travel to walk your dog !
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