17
There is a degree of professionalism about the
diggers and police believe financial incentives
make badger digging a lucrative pastime.
Add to the problem of digging, road mortality,
the destruction of setts through legitimate
farming activities, loss of feeding grounds,
ie pasture going under the plough, and snaring
by unsympathetic game keepers. At this rate by
the 1990s only a meagre remnant population will
survive.
I enjoy the sight of a family of badgers just
having emerged from their sett, especially
young cubs at play. There can be no finer way
to spend a June evening, especially if I manage
to get a photograph. How tragic it would be
if you were denied the pleasure of an evening
viewing slides of Essex badgers, taken by Essex
naturalists, because there are no Essex badgers
left to photograph. This is not a wild emotive
statement, this could be a fact in a little over
a decade unless we are prepared to act now.
Badgers are well protected by law, but it is up
to us to implement these laws. It is illegal to
willfully kill, injure or take a badger or
attempt to do so under any circumstances without
a specific licence from the Ministry of
Agriculture. The offence carries a fine of £1000
per animal yet courts impose fines far short of
this sum.
Badgers need your help. This may mean, one day,
you confront diggers at a sett. This is not
for the faint-hearted and it will alert the
diggers. Far better to observe, noting down all
details, particularly make and registration of
any vehicles. If you are sure badgers are
present in the sett phone the police immediately.
Tell them exactly where the sett is, giving a
map reference if possible and the location of