APPENDIX 13
Memorandum from Sett Recorder
BADGERS AND
THE LAW
The law is not giving badgers much protection
Most offences happen without being detected
at the time. As a sett recorder who makes hundreds of visits to
setts, I see the signs of dug setts at many sites. Those caught
in the act represent the tip of the iceberg, yet even when they
are caught they often evade conviction or are convicted but given
lenient sentences.
This leaves badgers vulnerable to future persecution.
For example:
1. In Gwynedd, North Wales men doing "fox
control" were found at a badger sett with dogs, one of which
had badger hairs in its mouth. They boasted about their experience
over the years yet they were acquitted because the sett was not
an obvious one! A badger is a large animal and produces unmistakeable
field signs! This appears to me to be a blatant miscarriage of
justice and since then more setts have been attacked in Gwynedd.
Sending dogs underground should be an offence—foxes,
badgers and dogs are known to die of suffocation due to collapses
during underground scuffles and battles. Fox destruction groups
have used bulldozers (Shooting Times and Shooting News)
to "rescue" dogs—or more usually their carcasses!
2. After the sounds of dogs baiting a badger
at a dug sett, near Bylchau police were called out but were refused
entry by the land owner. No action was taken and the badger population
has declined around this part of North East Wales due to illegal
persecution. Details available.
3. Last year near Mold a farmer pleaded
guilty to pouring diesel down a sett. He was not fined, only had
to pay costs.
Badgers are still protected by law?
April 2004
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