Tag: Wildlife Crime

Adopt a Sett

Posted on by Georgia Locock

I’m always hearing about crimes against badgers, especially at badger setts. But in the last few weeks I’ve heard about more then usual, one of which was in my local area.

A badger sett is what a badger calls home. It is usually situated in or near small clearings in woodland. A simple sett is made up of a single tunnel, with a sleeping chamber at the end. However, most setts have several entrance holes, and lots of tunnels which link up with each other. The tunnels also link up with sleeping and nursery chambers.

There are numerous horrific crimes which people commit against badgers. For centuries badgers have been victims of persecution by man, and in the old days, badger baiting was a popular spectator sport. It was made illegal in 1835, but never completely died out and has become more common in the last 20 years. Badger diggers use dogs and digging equipment to take badgers from their setts. The captured badgers are then attacked by dogs for sport, whilst the spectators gamble on the performance of the dogs. Badger baiting is extremely cruel and the badgers suffer severe injuries before they are killed. The dogs are often badly injured as well.

It is estimated that 10,000 badgers are killed in this way every year.

Along with these disgusting offences against badgers, they are also victims of crimes such as disturbance, damage and destruction of their setts. A recent example of destruction and damage at a badgers sett was at Stevenage, Hertfordshire. The sett was bricked in and scorched which prevented the badgers getting out to find food and would of caused unnecessary suffering. Another example of a horrible act of cruelty against a badger was at a sett not far from where I live. A snare was set up on a badger sett. One of the badgers got caught in the snare and slowly strangled to death as it tried to escape. These are just two examples of sick acts of cruelty against badgers.

Adopting a sett

By adopting a local sett or a sett on your local patch, where you might go and watch badgers there regularly, you can keep an eye on the sett. What I mean by this is making sure there hasn’t been any recent disturbance or there isn’t anyone about that looks suspicious. Now, this isn’t a formal thing. It’s just doing something of your own back to look out for badgers and help prevent crimes against them. I have my own example of this as last year I went to a sett that I set my camera up at regularly and I noticed that some of the wholes had been filled in, trees had been cut back by the sett and overall, the sett had been disturbed. Due to this I got in touch with my local wildlife crime officer and the Staffordshire Badger Group. Even though though this was not as serious as something as terrible as badger baiting etc, it was still important to have it dealt with in case the problem progressed. Fortunately it was dealt with.

Of course badgers aren’t the only species that suffer from such horrible acts of cruelty.

I’m also very much looking forward to a Wildlife Crime conference that I am going to on Saturday, it’s run by BAWC (Birders Against Wildlife Crime) and should be a very interesting day!

Stopping wildlife crime.

Posted on by Georgia Locock

A few months back I was invited to a wildlife and countryside protection meeting by my local police force, Staffordshire Police, after emailing them about a campaign set up by BAWC (Birds against Wildlife Crime) and The Wildoutside. They have annual meetings where different organisations will attend from around the county. These organisations included Staffordshire Badger Trust, West Midlands Hedgehog rescue, Staffordshire County Council, National Farmers Union, The Forestry Commission and a few more. Even though some of the organisations might have different ideas and thoughts about the natural world, at the meeting the only thing that we all wanted to do was help prevent wildlife crime.

I knew nothing about the prevention of wildlife crime in my area until I went to the meeting. I was so pleased to see that they take protecting wildlife so seriously in my county. Everyone there had a good understanding of the natural world and the crimes we discussed varied from fish poaching to fly tipping and disturbance at badgers setts. At the end I got the opportunity to speak to some individuals which was very interesting and I was also invited to go along to the Staffordshire Badger Trusts vaccination scheme when it started up next year which I was very pleased about. I would like to thank the Staffordshire Police for inviting me to the meeting and I’m looking forward to the next one.

Even though what the Staffordshire police and organisations it’s in partnership with do is fantastic, wildlife crime still goes on in my county and throughout the UK. One of the main reasons for this is that members of the public don’t realise that what they’ve seen is against the law and therefore don’t report it. To make sure this doesn’t carry on and people do understand what to look for, how it happens and why it happens we need to make them aware and that’s were a campaign called Wildlife Crime Aware comes in.

Wildlife Crime Aware was originally founded by The Wildoutside  but are now partnered with BAWC (Birds Against Wildlife Crime). The Wildoutside is a group that encourage people to get out and about to see the natural world then share their findings. BAWC is an independent campaign group that’s aim is to fight back against wildlife crime. Together they work together as different organisations with a common goal to stop wildlife crime and inform the public. This change in public awareness and opinion will give them more eyes in the field and lead to political changes and a positive change.

To find out more about how you can help stop wildlife crime and identify it yourself here are some links with some more information:

Wildlife Crime Aware Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/wildlifecrimeaware

The Wildoutside website – http://thewildoutside.com/

Birds against Wildlife Crime (BAWC) website – http://birdersagainst.org/

Please help make a difference as our wildlife is in quite serious trouble at the moment and the reason for this is because of human beings. We need to work together and fight against wildlife crime so that in years to come the wildlife that makes up our landscapes can thrive again. There are obviously other problems that are putting wildlife at risk but wildlife crime is a big one.

One individual species that you can help fight for and protect is the Hen Harrier. In the past 60 years grouse shooting (driven grouse shooting) interests have persecuted the Hen Harrier to such an extent that it is almost extinct. In 2013 only 2 pairs nested in England. Lots of great work has been done, especially recently, to help save these birds and fight for them. For example the keen work of a fellow young wildlife enthusiast and conservationist, Findlay Wilde, who build his very own Hen Harrier to help raise awareness for them. You can read all about it by clicking on his blog here – http://wildeaboutbirds.blogspot.co.uk/

You can also help our Hen Harriers by signing this petition set up by Mark Avery to ban driven grouse shooting – http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/65627

Please help stop and prevent wildlife crimes.