Blocking badger setts causes untold suffering
I’M pleased that over the past few weeks the Mercury has highlighted the issues surrounding illegal fox hunting, particularly under the guise of trail hunting.
As someone who is very much involved with the conservation of badgers, I wish to identify to your readers a less well known aspect of fox hunting - the blocking of badger setts.
This practice, made illegal under the Hunting Act 2004, is carried out by some, we believe, to prevent hunted foxes from running to ground.
We find this particularly concerning as the Hunting Act also prohibits the chasing of foxes, which unquestionably shouldn’t be happening with trail hunting.
The impact of sett blocking on badgers is difficult to assess.
It is usually done with heavy materials such as wet clay, which are stamped into the sett holes, the badgers generally becoming trapped in the sett.
The blocking takes place mainly in winter, a time when food is limited and females may be pregnant or feeding young.
Although badgers are excellent diggers when digging in, it’s much more difficult for them to dig out from the confines of the sett.
At worst, some or all badgers will be incarcerated in the sett and starve to death or suffocate.
Badgers unquestionably perish, but it’s almost impossible to know the true number of badgers killed annually by this illegal practice.
While it is difficult to prove that hunts are responsible for sett blocking, they are clearly involved in some cases.
One example was the case at Leicester Magistrates’ Court, in 2015, when a terrierman of a local hunt pleaded guilty to interfering with a badger sett by such blocking. He was appropriately fined. Only this past week I’ve seen a very large sett which was severely blocked on the day that a hunt was active in the area.
Was this coincidence or not, and for what reason was it blocked?
The public is urged to report sett blocking to the police on 999 if in progress, or 101 if a sett is found already blocked.
They should request the incident number and inform the Leicestershire
and Rutland Badger Group or the Badger Trust via their websites. Dr David Duckett, Chairman, Leicestershire and Rutland Badger Group, Tilton on the Hill