Cullers slashed my tyres at night, claims wildlife activist
A DERBYSHIRE wildlife activist claims his car tyres were slashed by badger cullers late at night.
David James says he was out in the woods near Matlock last weekend when the vandals struck.
The 70-year-old had parked his Ford Fiesta in a lay-by in Via Ghellia Road last Sunday.
He and a colleague then walked along public footpaths from 8pm to 10pm, searching for injured badgers being targeted in a Government cull to stop the spread of TB in cattle.
Mr James, of Matlock, had heard that there was a badger cull happening in the area and wanted to save the animals if they had been shot.
But when he returned he found all four tyres had been slashed. As a result he had to drive his car for over a mile on flat tyres to the nearest house to ask to use a phone, as there was no mobile phone signal in the area.
Retired care worker Mr James said: “I was terrified. I was stuck there at night time with no way of getting around and no way of contacting help. I’m not a coward, but it was frightening.
“I didn’t know if they were still there, or if they had a knife on them. They’ve really upped the ante by doing something like this. To leave me stranded a mile from the nearest house, that’s not right. That’s gone too far.”
Mr James said he was worried the car was going to be badly damaged, or that no one would help him at that time of night.
He said: “I thought: ‘Who’s going to open the door to some stranger at 10.30 at night?’ but this wonderful woman and her son opened the door.
“She let me in and I stayed at her house for an hour until the breakdown vehicle arrived.”
Mr James believes the vandalism was done by badger cullers who wanted to get their own back on him.
He said: “The culling people; they hate us, but we do not get into confrontations with them. We are totally peaceful, and we are not hunt saboteurs. We do get in the way sometimes but we are totally visible.
“My car has a sticker on the window which says ‘I love badgers’, which is why I think they targeted it.
“There were some cullers shouting at us from a distance when we were in nearby fields that night. They were shouting: ‘Go home.’”
Mr James has worked to protect badgers for 20 years and spoke out about his opinions on the badger cull in general.
He said: “They want to kill 30,000 badgers, that’s their aim. It’s wrong, utterly wrong. These are beautiful creatures, and they are not vicious. They do not deserve to be annihilated like this.”
Local pressure group Derbyshire Against the Cull started a GoFundMe page to raise money to pay for Mr James’ replacement tyres. It has so far raised £500 towards the cost of repairs, hitting the campaign’s target.
The group said in a statement: “Sadly, this behaviour is not unusual, and many members of the public have been targeted or attacked whilst out in their peaceful attempt to save lives.”
A Derbyshire police spokesperson said: “We received a call at 8.50am on Monday, September 28 to report an incident of criminal damage in Via Ghellia Road, Bonsall in which a car’s tyres were damaged.”
Police say the incident has no viable lines of enquiry and dealt with it by a telephone resolution.