These ‘marksmen’ do leave badgers to suffer

I HAVE been watching with interest and growing alarm, the recent publication of letters on the topic of the badger cull.

I am most disturbed by the letter written by Ken Neal, published on November 18, as a response to a previous letter written by G Kirby. He refers to “specially-licenced marksmen” being used to kill badgers and comments that they would never leave an animal to suffer. I beg to differ.

Ever since the inception of this ineffective, unscientific and inhumane cull, leading vets and the RSPCA have long called for it to be scrapped on grounds of cruelty alone. The Independent Expert Panel appointed by Defra to assess the cull, deemed it “ineffective and inhumane”. They reported that between 7.4 per cent and 22.8 per cent of badgers took more than five minutes to die. A shocking example as testament to this cruelty cited one such incidence that was monitored, and reported that it took the ‘marksman’ 69 shots observed with thermal imaging equipment until the badger finally stopped moving – the whole episode taking nearly 14 minutes to play out. Natural England provides a report on ‘badgers not recovered’ – these are badgers where ‘marksmen’ have to report shots taken against carcasses recovered. Shockingly 11.4 per cent of badgers in 2019 fell into this category. A high proportion of these animals would have been wounded and retreated to their setts or undergrowth and been subject to a slow, painful death. Hardly proof that these ‘marksmen’ are the pinnacle of good practice spouted by Mr Neal. Even badgers that have been trapped in cages to be killed are not despatched humanely. An undercover report from Cumbria captured amongst other welfare issues, a badger that the ‘marksmen’ had to take multiple shots to kill even though the poor animal was sat trapped right in front of him – an event that the RSPCA deemed the worst of all animal welfare breaches where the badger suffered for many minutes in a state of semi-consciousness.

Ironically, shortly after reporting on the ineffectiveness of the cull, the IEP was dissolved, which speaks volumes in itself and sadly now, the killing of badgers during the cull is no longer monitored, so heaven knows what animal welfare breaches are going unreported by these so-called “specially-licenced marksmen”. My final observation is the shocking fact that none of the badgers killed during the recent culls have been tested for TB, making both healthy and infected animals the targets of these ‘marksmen’.

RAY CLARKE

Lambourn