Irish Badger persecution ,6000 snares laid a night!

national | animal rights | press release

Saturday June 28, 2008 09:42

by Bernadette Barrett.Co-ordinator - Badgerwatch Ireland

barrettb at gofree dot indigo dot ie

5, Tyrone Avnenue,lismore lawn, waterford.

00-353 ++(O) 51373876

Badger cruelty by department of agriculture snaring

The young sow struggled for hours in the snare until a local lady became aware of her plight. When she contacted Badgerwatch it was late Saturday afternoon. The snare had pulled so tight that it had become embedded in the animal’s lower abdomen and across the groin areas. Loose earth in the vicinity demonstrated her struggle for freedom.. To add to her misery, the snare had actually been set on a ditch. The local conservation ranger was notified but he did not attend.

OUTLAW THIS BARBARIC SNARE NOW

The Department of Agriculture’s badger trapper had not checked his snares that day. Indeed he did not arrive until lpm the following day - Sunday. A local vet was called to the scene but nothing could be done except to end the suffering. It could have been worse. She was not a lactating sow. Had she been, her orphaned cubs would have died of starvation somewhere underground, totally inaccessible. It would have been impossible to locate or indeed reach them. Badger trapping in this country, continues without respite, right through the badgers’ breeding season January-May.

In response to a Dail question raised by Dail Deputy Tony Gregory on behalf of the Irish Council Against Blood Sports (ICABS) 27th February 2007 Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan replied. “Most of the operational work involved is carried out by staff from the Farm Relief Service Co-op (FRS) who are closely supervised by staff from my Department. Obviously not close enough, Minister! For this, a “stopped restraint” ( lethal snare) of a type approved under Section 34(2) of the 1976 Wildlife Act is used.”.

The (former) Minister goes on “each FRS staff lays and monitors between 60-100 restraints (snares) and at peak times there may be up to 6,000 restraints on farmland on any given night”. “All restraints (snares) are checked daily (incorrect) to ensure trapped animals do not suffer any unavoidable trauma. Captured badgers are humanely euthanized”.

The common feature in almost every case over the years was that badgers get caught around the hind quarters as did our pictured sow. The more the animal struggles the tighter the wire becomes until it’s cut deep into the badger’s body causing horrendous damage to body tissues and much suffering to the animal. Without intervention our badger and God knows how many others could have suffered this trauma for forty eight hours awaiting the arrival of our good trapper from the Farm Relief Service!

The Department would have us believe that the badger lies relaxed and content in the snare while it awaits its fate. Badgerwatch has been contacted by a number of people in recent weeks who’ve provided evidence to the contrary. We have in turn, made the Dept of Agriculture and the National Parks and Wildlife Service, (NPWS) aware of such of such matters and to date Badgerwatch has to date received the standard acknowledgement from both. departments. We await a full response.Snaring began in 1985. Since 1995 approximately 53,000 badgers have been removed by trapping.

13,000 were also removed during the previous decade (1985-1994, inclusive) by the same method.
Included in the above figures were 5,933 trapped in 2007.

All figures quoted are from the Department of Agriculture official dataBadgerwatch (Ireland)

Co-ordinator: Bernadette Barrett

Tel: 00-353 ++(O) 51373876
Web: www.badgerwatch.ie

save preference

Comments (5 of 5)

traffic victims

by Driver

Sat Jun 28, 2008 22:35

In my part of the country there are stretches of woodland along the roads from which short-sighted badgers emerge in the early hours of the morning. They freeze at the approach of vehicles and wait to be run over. Every week a smashed carcass or two of the nocturnal creatures can be found on the roads near my home. Snares aren't needed to control their numbers.

Incidentally, in the southern part of China they raise badgers on badger farms. If you visit the city of Guangzhou (Canton) you'll see badgers in steel cages at the entrance to swanky restaurants. In other cages there may be rabbits or snakes. They are waiting patiently to be ordered by discerning diners, and cooks will lift them live out of their cages and take them into the kitchen yard to be slaughtered and prepared for the pot. All these are considered delicacies by gourmets.

A Passing Comment

by Mr Man

Sat Jun 28, 2008 21:55

Arthur-
"The early humans learned to share possibly warrens to survive ,that is why some people like them"

Where did you hear that? Sounds like utter nonsense. More likely they were quickly killed and eaten before they took the warren (why they wouldn't have just built gafs is a mystery). Plus, if they shared the warren, they'd probably get TB ; )

"The farmers who set snares are brainwashed dopes and would be better employed, seeking a scientific way of finding the true vector of TB "

I'm not sure farmers would make good scientists. They should leave it to people who actually learnt science.

Grotesque

by Arthur - Farming

Sat Jun 28, 2008 21:33

Old Brock the badger has been around before Pat in the British Isles and indeed they were very usefull to the early inhabitants, this is borne out by the names of towns in Britain like Brokenhurst Brokely etc named after them. The early humans learned to share possibly warrens to survive ,that is why some people like them and are prepared to stand up to the cullers. The farmers who set snares are brainwashed dopes and would be better employed, seeking a scientific way of finding the true vector of TB and be mindfull that the night is moving with other relations of the badger. If the badger is found to be the source of TB then they could be baited with streptomycin that was used to treat TB in humans. Anyone who is deliberately cruel to a biological creature, should be advised that there is an unseen hand in life that may visit them or theirs when they least expect it, call it Solons warning, the Heisnberg principal or a degree of randomness out there that could tap them on the shoulder with a problem and then they would be asking themselves "what have I done to deserve this"? One thing I can guarentee is that if we live and let live we will be no poorer for it in ways thet matter.
Regards

Vile snares and the scumgbags who set them.

by Dog Owner

Sat Jun 28, 2008 18:44

The badger snare is a bloody disgrace. My sheepdog went missing for three days , I thought he was after running away to chase a bitch on heat or something. I went looking for him around the woods at the bottom of my road and heard a whimpering noise coming from the ditch. I saw what looked like a brown and white football wrapped up in a fence. When I went over to it I saw to my horror that it was indeed my dog , wrapped so tighly in barbed wire he was just a tight ball of hair and wire. With wire cutters I eventually cut him out to find that he had got trapped in a badger snare which had in turn been attached to a barbed wire fence. One more night and he would surely have been dead. He had bee badly savaged by wild animlas as he lay there snared. I know i would happily kill the bastard "farmer" who set that snare if I got the chance.

evidences

by lulu

Sat Jun 28, 2008 14:05

Is there any evidence that the killing of badgers has reduced the incidence of TB?

Upcoming Events

New Events

Other Press

User Preferences

Feeds

Blog Feeds

The Saker

Public Inquiry

Human Rights in Ireland

Lockdown Skeptics

Irish Badger persecution ,6000 snares laid a night!

Comments (5 of 5)