It is often stated that badger baiters or people who don't want badgers on their land - due to unwarented fears of TB, dump carcases at the side of the road to cover up the cause of the real reason the badgers were killed. Although I don't doubt this goes on, if you were involed in the unlawful deaths of badgers, would you really dump them on the side of the road? Wouldn't it be far easier to just hide them away or bury them!
Many animals and birds are found on the road with apparently very little signs of serious injury. It may only take a glancing blow to the head to either kill the animal outright or put it in a serious state of shock or concussion. This left untreated can easily kill the animal. Badgers have very thick coats and a good layer of fat - especially in early winter, which can easily cover serious injuries. Dead badgers on the roads also can be a result of natural dispersal at certain times of the year, and even drought conditions - summer or winter, and it is often the case that you may come accross a quite a few of them in a given period.
Of course all this doesn't mean we need to drop our guard. Any badger road death, suspicious or not, should be reported to your local badger group at least. Find your local group through the NFBG website:
www.badger.org.uk
Badger road accident/death forms can then be downloaded from your local groups website, printed out, filled in and sent to them.
This all helps the cause!
