Website reveals appalling levels of badger baiting in Northern Ireland - Includes traumatic images

25/02/2009 12:30:53

Disgusting images from Northern Ireland. Photo credit USPCA.

Badger persecution in Northern Ireland
February 2009. Information uncovered during a investigation run by the Ulster Society Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (USPCA) into dog fighting found that it was connected with the murky world of badger persecution; the nauseating destruction of both an valued member of our native wildlife and of the dogs used in a vile activity that defiles the countryside.

Website set up became a boasting blog
A website set up to indulge the badger diggers craving was key to the investigation. It became accepted as an all-Ireland forum for this normally secretive activity. Arrogance surfaced and the site was used by diggers to brag openly about their exploits, to post pictures and set out ways to evade detection, all the while revealing information that allowed us to progress the investigation. The website is now closed.

Virtually no successful prosecutions
The badger and its habitat are supposedly protected. However a six month USPCA / Sunday Times investigation exposed glaring shortcomings in the policing of the laws. Successful prosecutions mounted by either of the agencies charged with protecting badgers in NI are virtually unheard of, yet hundreds of the creatures are torn apart every year.

Protection
The animals and their setts are protected under the Wildlife (Northern Ireland) Order 1985. It is an offence to disturb these animals or obstruct access to their place of refuge, or destroy or damage anything which conceals or protects their place of refuge.

The Northern Ireland Environment Agency is responsible for implementing the Wildlife Order. Badgers are also protected by the Animal Welfare Act 1972. This prohibits any act of cruelty including ‘badger baiting' and mounting prosecutions is the responsibility of the Prosecution Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

Shocking scale of persecution
The scale of persecution shocked everyone involved. Groups rendezvous twice a week throughout the ‘season'. Badgers were dragged from the sett into broad daylight and set upon by dogs in a foretaste of future suffering known as a ‘shake'. After a merciless mauling the traumatized creatures are returned to the sett to wait until the next session of torment. This time its fate is sealed, an agonizing death is the inevitable outcome. Hundreds of badgers perish each year to satisfy the bloodlust of common criminals. The dogs used are mercilessly exploited by their owners, and some are illegal breeds.

Action needed
If the evil of badger persecution is to be eradicated from our countryside it is the responsibility of landowners as custodians of the environment, the Statutory Agencies, whose remit is to protect this valued creature, and the rural community to be vigilant. Gangs of men with dogs and shovels are not invisible, the PSNI needs information and they need to act on it. Northern Ireland remains the only country within the UK that still tolerates hunting with dogs. It is the view of the USPCA that the Stormont Assembly should now introduce legislation to ban an activity that offers nothing but suffering to our native wildlife.