Wives and girlfriends urged to speak out against badger baiting

Such disgraceful cruelty has no place in modern society

December 2011: The Scottish SPCA is urging people, particularly women, to come forward with information relating to badger baiting, a horrendous crime becoming increasingly prevalent in parts of Scotland.

AWFUL INJURIES: A horrifically injured terrier, which has been used for badger baiting. Picture: Scottish SPCA

Badger baiting, like most forms of animal fighting, is predominantly an activity conducted by men and Scotland's animal welfare charity wants to encourage wives, girlfriends and family members to speak out against this barbaric crime.

The Scottish SPCA has received intelligence relating to badger baiting activities taking place across the country, but most commonly in Dumfries and Galloway, Ayrshire, Glasgow, Lanarkshire and the Scottish Borders.

Dogs are severely scarred around the muzzle and face
Scottish SPCA Chief Superintendent Mike Flynn said: ‘The general public is widely unaware that badger baiting still goes on today because the people involved in it manage to conceal their activities very well.

‘That's why we want to speak to the people who are close to the perpetrators because they are the often the only ones who will ever be exposed to this dreadful crime.

‘Some of the information we receive about animal fighting comes from female partners, friends and family members who are quite rightly disgusted to discover that their husband, boyfriend, brother or son is involved in such an extremely cruel activity.

‘Baiters self-treat dogs so they are not exposed'
‘Many are distraught when a partner returns home with their dog suffering from terrible injuries. The baiters will regularly self-treat the dogs rather than take them to a vet and be exposed. This can result in a dog's suffering being prolonged and in some cases the animals simply die from their injuries and infection or indeed are killed by their owner.

‘It's very unlikely members of the public will ever see a baiter walking their dog publicly, because anyone who saw one of these dogs would be very alarmed and hopefully they'd call us straight away.

‘The dogs we recover from our searches tend to be severely scarred around the muzzle and face, many have damage to their eyes and broken teeth and in some cases have injuries relating to what is called "de-gloving" of the skin from the face. Some also have leg and shoulder injuries.