Badger Care

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by m1.carson

Hi,

After a trip to Devon, the amount of "road kills" we saw were quite amazing, on commenting on the subject in a local hostelry, the landlord said " did you notice how fat, round and perfectly formed the badgers looked after they've been hit by a vehicle".

It was then mentioned that the local farmers could be culling the badgers, then chucking them over the hedges into the road.
No comment.

Max.

baiters are also known to dump bodies by the roadside so where it is safe and practical to do so I always stop to examine putative badger roadkill to establish cause of death

true roadkill will nearly always have a broken neck, flailed chest or extensive internal bleeding (the broken neck occurs as the badger instinctively adopts a head down to towards threat stance when threatened)

those that have been culled will show signs of snaring (cuts arround neck) poisoning/gassing (froth on lips, on facial fur , and in mouth often yellow or green in colour), or gunshot wounds to the head

baiting victims will have dogbites to the face and forward body , lumps of flesh missing, and puncture wounds (the latter resulting from being thrust at with pitch forks and similar0, they will also ften have been hamstrung to use in "training" a fighting dog - there are some lovely people out there arent the.

If i find suspicious deaths I move the badger to the verge so it is not squashed by traffic , record the 6 figure map refference and use a digital camera to document its injuries - this info goes to the local badger group who act as liason with the police.

I would stress that if anyone else wants to follow my example you should remember that your own safety is paramount -be careful where you stop, get the car off the road if you can, be extra careful of traffic while examining carcasses, and wear disposable latex gloves when handling bodies both to protect you from disease and from any toxic agents which might be present in a culled corpse.

your local badger group contact details can be foound on the NFBG website Badger Trust: Home

[oceanroc]

Eeyore,

I like your style and professional approach to investigating suspicious deaths.
I see a dead badger at least once a week so I think I will follow your example, get myself a pair of latex rubber gloves, and 'get on the case'.

I agree it is very sad that people could be so cruel to such a truly beautiful and magic animal. The more evidence there is to combat government and other initaitives the better.

Oceanroc

P.S. I enjoyed reading about how you got your name.

[eeyore]

nice one - just one note you will need more than 1 pair of gloves - they are disposable and the idea is to roll them into each other when you take them off so that any contaminants present on the outside dont get on your skin - you can buy boxes of 100pr from 1st aid supliers - tho a freind who is a nurse gets mine for me cos hospitals/drs etc buy them in much larger bulk (and thus lower price)

incidentally the reason that i dont actually collect the carcases as evidence is that possession of a dead badger is an offence , and I once had to do some quick talking when stopped by the police with 8 carcases in the boot

also should you happen to find a live badger which has been hit by a car or otherwise injured be very careful as they are capable of inflicting nasty bites when stressed - I generally use a pair of leather gauntlets to protect my hands and wrap the animal in an old pcnic rug (covering the head will keep it more docile) for transport to the wildlife hospital - but then I am a countryside proffesional and used to handling animals in dangerous circumstances - less experienced people might do better to move the animal to the verge then call the wildlife hospital to collect it.