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badger, start to bark with excitement. A
second or third dog may then be introduced to
the sett from another entrance. The badger may
then face two dogs, one in front and one behind.
The men waiting on top of the sett decide where
the barking is coming from and start to dig.
The terriers underground are not intended to
kill the badger, this occurs later, but to worry
it and prevent it from digging and throwing up
a wall of soil from between itself and the
terriers. Badgers are powerful animals and often
inflict very severe injuries on the attacking
terriers. Eventually the digging men locate
an underground tunnel of the sett, dogs and
badger are not far away. Dog and badger may by
now be "locked on" jaw to jaw. The dog is drawn
out dragging the badger with it. The badger is
held up by its tail. It is then either "bagged"
for further sadistic sport later, or beaten with
spades or crowbars or disabled in some other way,
before being thrown to the dogs by way of reward.
If, however, the badger is required for an
organised 'bait', it will be kept for several
days before having to fight a succession of dogs
often in specially constructed 'arenas' in front
of a paying audience who may bet heavily on the
spectacle. The badger succumbs to a lingering
death.
In one area a group of eight men are system-
atically taking the badgers. They have been seen
digging with impunity, midweek during the middle
of the day. They return repeatedly to active
setts, digging enormous holes into them rendering
them untenable for future generations of
badgers which in any case have been starved to
death underground after the adults have been
taken or killed defending their young.