29th January 2010: Badger Persection Alert from NWCU

The NWCU (National Wildlife Crime Unit) is in receipt of information regarding "Doughnutting", which is a particular method of poisoning Badgers. Doughnuts are being stuffed with slug pellets [NFD] and left close to badger setts.

Badgers have a sweet tooth and will eat the doughnuts resulting in a slow and unpleasant death. As with other poisoning cases, other animals within the locality are also likely to be affected. H

Human consumption may result in harm*.

Please contact the NWCU on 01506 833729 or email ukwildlifecrime@nwcu@police.pnn.uk if any similar intelligence held.

* NWCU Note: Most slug pellets contain Metaldehyde. Within a few hours of accidental or intentional ingestion, symptoms appearing in humans include severe abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, and fever.

6th November 2009: Badger Trust welcomes forensic triumph

Detailed ballistics evidence led to the conviction on Tuesday (November 3rd) of a St Ives man for killing a badger. Michael Robert Pierce of St Ives, Cornwall, was fined £300 with £1,930 costs and forfeited his rifle and gun licence. Truro magistrates ruled that his CZ .22-calibre rifle had fired the fatal shot. Pierce had faced two charges that he unlawfully killed the animal and used a firearm and ammunition insufficiently powerful to do so humanely.

A dogwalker had found the dying badger, and police wildlife officer Simon Dobson took the carcase to a government laboratory in Truro for a post-mortem. A forensic weapons expert matched a bullet found in the animal to Pierce's rifle. Sgt Dobson searched the database for gun licences of local shooters with similar rifles who were permitted to hunt in the area. He then seized Pierce's rifle and fired test rounds with it. The weapon was later analysed by ballistic experts and matched to the bullet.

Robert Speechley of Cornwall Badger Rescue attended the trial and said he hoped the ruling would make people think twice before shooting protected species.

“It is unusual to see a case with such good evidence as this, and it has been heartening to see the lengths to which a wildlife crime has been pursued. We certainly hope this example will deter people from shooting any protective species, but a larger fine would have made the deterrent effect even greater".

6th November 2009: Badger Trust condemns Welsh cull plan

The Badger Trust is disappointed that the Welsh Assembly Government has decided to continue with plans to trap and shoot badgers as part of a campaign to eliminate bovine TB. We understand the killing programme still depends on a final decision by Rural Affairs Minister Elin Jones, and would not begin before the end of the closed season next spring.

The Trust has sent a further letter before action to the Welsh Assembly Government as part of the Judicial Review Pre Action Protocol. In it, the Trust asks for an answer by November 19th and further action will depend on the response. The Badger Trust uses all lawful means to campaign for the improved protection of badgers as part of its general activities to promote and enhance the welfare, conservation and protection of badgers, their setts and their habitats for the public benefit.

Badger Trust chairman David Williams said: “This has been a sad example of assembly members listening more to political clamour than to the science, but we remain committed to finding an acceptable alternative to culling, and we are willing to enter into discussions to do so.

“We must emphasise, though, that we would only tolerate the killing of badgers where it was underpinned by robust scientific evidence proving that it was necessary, was humane in method and would achieve a legitimate aim such as preventing the spread of bovine tuberculosis. We do not consider that this test has been satisfied in the current instance”.

3rd November 2009: Badger Trust calls for Welsh cull plan to be revoked

The Badger Trust has formally asked for the decision of 28 September 2009 by the Minister for Rural Affairs in the Welsh Assembly Government to organise a badger cull to be revoked. The Trust has asked Mrs Elin Jones, the Minister, to postpone any cull while she considers the legal position and responds to the Trust’s further letter before action under the Judicial Review Pre Action Protocol.

The Minister’s order permitting the cull, at odds with the overwhelming preponderance of scientific evidence before her, came into force on 21 October, but a motion in opposition has been laid down and a debate against the order is due to be held on Wednesday (4 November).

Read the full release from the Badger Trust here.

30th October 2009: Defending the Badger

Gareth Morgan, also Known as the 'Mid Wales Badgerman', has spent the last 25-30 years studying badgers. This beautiful video from John Harding clearly illustrates the unique relationship Gareth has formed with a number of badger families in Mid Wales.

Gareth is understandably very concerned about the planned cull of badgers in Wales and questions why this is necessary when alternative measures are available to help combat the TB problem in cattle.

September 2009: Rare sighting of albino badger!

We would like to thank all of you who have contacted us through the website with stories of badger sightings and encounters.

We have recently received a picture of an unusual visitor to a garden in the Abbotsbury area of Dorset. The person who contacted us has been feeding a group of badgers and was surprised at the arrival of one with unusual colouring! This badger looks like an albino but its fur has an almost reddish tinge.

Most badgers are similar in colour, but a few vary from white (albino) to almost totally black (melanistic), depending on the amount of melanin pigment in the hairs. There are also badgers displaying reddish fur (erythristic). Albino badgers often become discoloured by contact with soil in which they live, but can still be identified by their pale noses and claws.

Research in the past has revealed that if only one parent is albino, the offspring will have normal colouration, but they will carry the recessive gene of albinism. One of their grandchildren may be an albino.

Badgers have a limited range of dispersal and rather restricted mating possibilities. This means that a higher proportion of animals carrying the albinism gene are likely to occur in some populations. There has been a cluster of albino badger sightings in the Dorchester and Martinstown areas. It has been documented that an adult albino badger was killed by a car near Dorchester in 1962 and others have been recorded since then. We picked up a road traffic victim in June 2003 next to the B3147 north of Loders Garage, Dorchester. We took it to a local taxidermist and now the young boar badger has been preserved as a display specimen for the group.

Albinism appears in many species of animals, but is especially rare in prey animals such as rabbits. Albinos are more conspicuous to predators and do not survive long in the wild.

Please contact us if you see any unusual colouring in badgers. We are keen to document these sightings.

21st August 2009: Farmer manager fined over badger killings

A respected farm manager and gamekeeper who snared and shot dead four badgers has been fined £3500 by a sheriff.

For more details, please see these stories from The Herald and BBC:

"Sheriff Fines Farm Manager For Snaring Then Killing Badgers"

"Record Fine Over Badger Killings"