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BADGER SHOOTING PILOT TRIAL GIVES GREEN LIGHT TO FRAUD

BADGER TRUST:
PRESS RELEASE
3rd August 2011

Who will watch the watchmen?* 

Deceit in the dark will be easy under the Coalition Government’s scheme to allow running badgers in England to be shot at night when badgers are above ground. The greatest of many weaknesses in the proposed pilot trial is that those being paid to do the shooting will produce the only evidence on which a decision about efficacy and humaneness would be made. 

The Badger Trust says there must be on-the-spot "live" monitoring of the shooting trials at all times by truly independent experts if examination of carcasses is to have either value or credibility. 

Although independent vets may well check for humaneness the shooters will present the carcasses for post mortem examination. Unscrupulous farmers or contractors could secretly bury any dead badgers showing signs of being killed by more than one shot or of extensive wounding. This could hardly be easier than in the dark with cover all round, making it unlikely that such shooters would be detected and so lose their licences. Worse, they would have a vested interest in ensuring a “positive” outcome of the trial, leading to free shooting being adopted and more work for them.

David Williams, chairman of the Badger Trust and a professional mammals officer, said: “Ministers have revealed a woeful ignorance of night time conditions in the countryside. They have also been naive about human nature when people are presented with opportunities for fraud under the cover of darkness”.

*Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?, A question attributed to the Roman poet Juvenal. 

Jack Reedy
BADGER TRUST

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