14
PERSECUTION OF ESSEX BADGERS
Over the years my wife Chris and I have
graduated through an interest in birds to a
more challenging topic of mammals, badgers
in particular. We have attended Mammal
Society Conferences on badgers at which
persecution always seemed to occupy a large
part of the programme. How lucky, I thought
that we in Essex were not blighted with
digging and badger baiting. The Mammal
Society resurvey of badger setts in selected
10 km squares (to be representative of
Essex) got under way. Chris and I were
looking at N.W. Essex and discovered snaring,
trapping and gassing of badgers to be common
place.
We became involved in a court case where
Fenn Traps had been set in an active badger
sett. The case was not proven but some
useful police contacts were established.