Selby and Goole Badger Watch - telephone us on 0771 1883072
BADGER PERSECUTION
WHAT IT IS AND HOW YOU CAN HELP.....
CRIMES AGAINST BADGERS
Badger persecution takes many forms: including digging a badger sett, baiting the badger above ground with dogs, interferring with a badger sett, blocking a sett, shooting, lamping, gassing, snaring and poisioning.
Be it intentional or accidental, badger setts can be destroyed as a result of dyke clearing, forestry work, housing development, farming operations such as ploughing and harvesting crops and also road construction. So despite badgers and their setts being protected under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992, they still face great persecution and that is why badgers need our help.
By monitoring setts we are helping to protect it. By keeping accurate and up to date records and taking images and videos, we are helping to protect that sett.
Finding a dug badger sett is very distressing and at first it may not register what has happened.
If you find a sett which has been dug, contact the police and ring it in on 101 to get a crime incident number and state that it is a wildlife crime. It can also be reported to the Badger Trust. It is important to report it because without these statistics, it's a case of "Crime's against badgers?? What crimes - none have been reported."
FOX HUNTING NOW KNOWN AS TRAIL HUNTING
IS IT LEGAL FOR A FOX HUNT TO BLOCK A BADGER SETT?
No it is not
Prior to the Hunting Act 2004 coming into force a conditional exemption in Section 8 of the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 did allow fox hunts to earth stop and block badger setts in order to prevent a fox escaping and going to ground down the badger sett. This was known as "soft blocking" sometimes done with bales of straw or other material.
This exemption was withdrawn when the Hunting Act 2004 came into force.
Both badgers and their setts are now protected by law.
FINDING A DUG SETT
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 and even moreso if you can't get a signal to call up what3words or Google maps!
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 in the village of XXXX, close to the old mine workings, take the single track road, near three white cottages leading on to Green Lane. Sett is in woodland on the right side - 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.
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 to the police, repeating any information as necessary.
DUG SETT DISCOVERED IN JANUARY 2024 ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF GOOLE
A remote, well hidden location, perfect for badger diggers !
We discovered this sett on the outskirts of Goole, dug extensively in January 2024. The Humberside Rural task force were called and attended quite quickly.
THE SAME SETT IN JULY 2024
Weed killer has been thrown over this sett and all the foliage has turned yellow.
But notice how the dug and backfilled holes have now sunk in by around 4 inches since it was found dug in January.
Six months after we found this sett extensively dug, the backfilled holes have now sunk. It would be easy for anyone walking by without badger awareness knowledge not to give this sunken earth a second glance. Sadly we have seen it many many times.
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