# Badgers



## DC4JC (Sep 19, 2007)

Just a thought.

when you're driving around how often do you see a badger lying on the verge, obviously dead, but with no real sign of injury?
Rumour has it that certain individuals kill the badgers ( which are protected) and then dump the body by the side of the road to look like road kill.

Well today driving on the A420 I thought, for the first time in my life, that I saw a badger in a field. Unlikely during day light hours I know. But on looking a bit more closely it was indeed a badger stretched out, dead, in the middle of the field!
Given their habitat I think its unlikely its just keeled over in the middle of the field, so I would suspect it has either been poisoned or shot.

So, perhaps the rumours are correct?
:?


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## krull (Jul 22, 2006)

Very likely I'm afraid. Farmers are very quick to blame badgers for TB but fail to blame their own actions, as usual. It is reckoned that most TB is spread by beasts being moved up and down the country all the time in lorries. 

If you are interested, try listening to Farming Today on Radio4, they seem to talk about badgers every other day.


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## tinkering (Dec 8, 2007)

*badger deaths*

Badgers unfortunately do carry TB,which is then passed on to cattle,and this is a serious problem for dairy farmers here in the south west, yes the dairy cattle did spread the disease to the badgers in the first place, this all happened over forty years ago, since the badgers were protected their numbers have increased dramaticly hence the large numbers that are killed by road traffic.


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## Spacerunner (Mar 18, 2006)

It was most probably hit on the road and ran until it collapsed and died. Surmising that it had been shot or poisoned is jumping to conclusions without evidence.


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## Smilo (Nov 2, 2005)

Livestock farmers have been causing more than enough problems ever since Neolithic times. I can see only one good answer to the badgers and cattle issue and that's to turn back into native woodland all that land which is currently used to support the meat and dairy industry, and give it back to the badgers, deer, wild boar, foxes and wolves.


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## Smilo (Nov 2, 2005)

Spacerunner said:


> It was most probably hit on the road and ran until it collapsed and died. Surmising that it had been shot or poisoned is jumping to conclusions without evidence.


Not that it matters greatly, but isn't that what you've just done too? :lol:


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## 103279 (Mar 5, 2007)

The increase in dead badgers at the roadside is due to the increase in badger population; badger’s protected status has compounded this. Badger’s growth success has come at a high price for hedgehogs and ground nesting birds, both are menu favourites of Mr Brock who plunders the bird eggs and rips apart hedgehogs to devour the fleshy inside. There have been a number of trial culls – designed to fail so as to not upset the badger huggers – and the ‘Krebs trial’ Culling small areas has proved ineffective because the badgers move on to infect other areas. Where a large scale cull has taken place such as Ireland, TB in cattle has almost been eradicated. Even the Department for the Elimination of Farming, DEFRA, is proposing a badger cull. Badgers being shot and dumped is an urban legend, the dead badger in the field probably died of natural causes either as the result of a fight with another animal or more likely being injured by a car and they walking off to die. Without examining the animal you can not be conclusive.


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## Smilo (Nov 2, 2005)

theoldtrout said:


> .... a number of trial culls - designed to fail so as to not upset the badger huggers....


Well, I'll be huggered,,,,,, And that didn't work either!


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## baldlygo (Sep 19, 2006)

I do not believe the numbers of dead badgers on the roadside is just due to increased numbers of badgers.
Has anyone ever run one over or even come close? 

Paul


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## Smilo (Nov 2, 2005)

baldlygo said:


> Has anyone ever run one over or even come close?


Clearly, yes. And one of them was my dad in the early 70s and he was a national park warden desperate to stop people persecuting badgers. It knocked him sick.

Far's I know all the badger protection-type groups and naturalists' trusts are sad but satisfied that road deaths are a fact, and a reliable indicator of badgers' population levels.


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## 103279 (Mar 5, 2007)

baldlygo said:


> Has anyone ever run one over or even come close?
> 
> Paul


Yes, I recently squashed one with my landrover while out lamping and hit another on the motorway a few years ago in my Alfa Spider - it did about a grands worth of damage.

If you live out the sticks in the south west as I do, the damm things are everywhere, there is even a set it my lane.


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## Smilo (Nov 2, 2005)

theoldtrout said:


> Alfa Spider - it did about a grands worth of damage.


 Yeah, but didn't the other badgers cheer when they heard how much hitting their pal had cost you!

And anyway, they were there long before you and your Spiders.


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## tinkering (Dec 8, 2007)

*badgers*

It appears that one of the members on this thread does not eat meat,drink milk,eat cheese or have a bread roll, fruit juice or enjoy a glass of beer,neither must they have a pair of leather shoes or a woollen jumper, all of which are produced by farmers!.

PS I hope that you did not have to many sleepless nights whilst you were lambing Oldtrout.

Take care Les.


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## baldlygo (Sep 19, 2006)

theoldtrout said:


> If you live out the sticks in the south west as I do, the damm things are everywhere, there is even a set it my lane.


There are many around here and they probably visit our garden every night. I reckon it was a badger that pulled down a very large wasps nest in the garden and eat most of it. Also leaving nice presents in the garden for our dog to roll in.
Because there are so many around is why I'm skeptical about many of the road kills. I only ever recall seeing a live one once or twice by the side of the road in 40 years of driving. Do they just dash out from the side when hit I wonder?

Paul


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## Smilo (Nov 2, 2005)

*Re: badgers*



tinkering said:


> It appears that one of the members on this thread does not eat meat,drink milk,eat cheese or have a bread roll, fruit juice or enjoy a glass of beer,neither must they have a pair of leather shoes or a woollen jumper, all of which are produced by farmers!..


Hmm, I wonder if tinkering might be referring to me? He'd be right about the meat and the dairy produce, leather and wool, but items produced by farmers is not the issue. The issue is one of avoiding, _as best one can_, supporting, or being at all involved in, causing any avoidable harm to any animals.


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