when e-petitions are back up..... badgers!

Paul at Fechan

Well-Known Member
so if this was an e-petitions... how many would sign??? :cool:

The Europe an Badger (Meles meles) is a mammal found throughout Europe and Scandinavia. It is a species hunted in many European and other home range countries which does not impact it's international conservation status as a species of 'least concern'.


The current protection offered to Badgers within the UK is unnecessary and has lead to a rapid increase in the population now estimated to be around 300,000. This high population is aiding the spread of Bovine Tuberculosis and contributes to an estimated 50,000 road traffic collisions per year caused by this increase to such high numbers of the species. Apart from the significant economical impact of this species spreading Bovine Tb to cattle and through insurance related claims because of vehicular damage, the badger is also a very damaging species to many other farming interests, game related sectors or rural conservation projects looking to protect and promote species designated as threatened or endangered.


The proposal of this petition is that there should be a removal of the protected status of this species as it currently stands in terms of the Protection of Badgers Act 1992. This is to allow for the European Badger to be hunted and controlled as a quarry species with suitable open and closed season. This move which could allow for the seasonal control of badgers within the UK would give the land owner the opportunity to manage and control this species as is currently practiced with deer, game and vermin where necessary. Many landowners, local authorities, farmers or forestry companies would have no reason to manage existing badger populations on their holdings, but for the Dairy and Beef industry as with other farming and conservation, this proposal could lead to simple proactive management of the species where their impact can otherwise be devastating.
 
nice animals but they don,t need protection now maybe at one stage and even then i didnt think it necassery i think they got protection in the first place as a knee jerk reaction to the tree huggers camping on sets all week,ive stopped going on three farms as thats all thats on there,atb doug,
 
I see more badgers than foxes here, hardly in need of protection.

You have to admit though, they would be a lot easier to shoot than foxes.
 
I would sign it but I question your estimated numbers. I could probably introduce you personally to 100,000 of em !!!!
 
haha, there was no BSC in my mind lol! Figures wise, there's at least a stable population of 300k, after birthing this must jump a fair bit before seasonal reductions but hell, something needs done
 
Not many badgers around me if you want to stop the spread of TB when's the open
season start on the main cause of transfers farmers
 
farmers eh? when 15-40% of badgers in Btb hotspots carry the disease? They found that 10% of badgers from rta testing carry the disease.... not much to work out.
 
one old farmer never had a beast confirmed till he started doing spuds ,so he moved his herd to other side of his land ,right next to two setts now he has lost or slaughtered half his herd,in the space of about five or six seasons,the other (milk) farm sold up,and the thirds thinking of packing it all in,
 
When I was working with the NFU in the sixties it was accepted then that badgers were aiding the spread of TB. You only have to look at the way the incidence of BTB rose within a couple of years of the protection status coming in to see that there should be no doubt about the problems they are causing.
The numbers in my area are quite ridiculous now, and they are raiding poultry farms on a regular basis something that was virtually unheard of years ago. I suspect that could be because of increased competition for food.
 
Putting the tb argument aside what benefit do high numbers do to benefit the countryside ? Don't see many hedgehogs now and definitely less ground nesting and hedge nesting birds than when I was a kid. Nothing to see double figures on a night foxing. I don't want to wipe them out but they should be controlled.
 
they love chicken coops at night,hedgehogs and any eggs ,chicks that dont get away.theres farms around here keep cattle in all the time because of tb positives during DEFRA checks .and theyve got plenty many badgers setts.id sign your petition paul,they need controlling .im not advocating wipeout but the numbers are way too high.they need thinning out
 
I'd also sign the petition. As a suggestion, I'd rephrase it to give more emphasis to the wider environmental damage they do. Unfortunately, many folk don't give a stuff about dairy farmers or bTB, but they do love hedgehogs, lapwings and bumble bees...
 
Quite agree that badgers are ridiculously over protected - but i would maintain the law on digging out setts with dogs.

F
 
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I'm forever tripping over the ble**y things while out lamping, & a mate was up a high seat one dark night, lamping bunnies, when a pair of tumbling boar badgers almost had the footings out from the ladder! definately need to be off the list,but with the only stipulation of no digging or dog entries.
 
but with the only stipulation of no digging or dog entries.

Why not? You can dig badgers in most of Scandinavia, Germany, France etc.

It is pretty academic as the law won't change, I'm just careful not to lump badger digging with baiting, which is completely different.
 
I'd definitely sign. There's badgers now where they've never existed in three generations of living memory. Protection from baiting is one thing. Allowing them to explode exponentially at the expense of everything in their path is plain irresponsible.

The biggest hurdle we face I fear is the aftermath left by the useless ***** doing the pilot culls. Their inability to humanely free-shoot a Badger means it's now almost indefensible to want to do so.
 
digging out I would see as a step too far for a change in legislation? going from protected to vermin, I suspect that just couldn't fit politically
 
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