Within Gloucestershire zone 9 (North Cots) bait points and a rectangular dug-out area were found deep within a wood by some locals recently one evening. Another group then found a cage in the exact same spot just an hour later.
Similar stuff is happening in zone 1 (West Glos). Taking cages away in the morning, then putting them back in the evening? Preparing an area then slapping a cage down just before dusk? We’ve known that happen before, in the first few years of the cull, though only in one localised area. Cage-trappers are taking extraordinary measures to keep on killing, trying to avoid our daytime checks. Unfortunately for them, especially as many autonomous groups work in areas local to them, it’s not just during the day that people are checking on setts.
Meanwhile, we’re out checking setts across zones 1 and 9 today (and, cull operatives beware, into the night). Help support our work if you can – PayPal.me/threecountiessabs
Gloucestershire Badger Office wrote the following post regarding changes to the way that culling has taken place over the past few years:
Due to the determination of anti-cull people in the Gloucestershire zones over the last 8 years(!) we have seen a number of obvious changes in the ways in which cullers operate. From cage-trapping playing a much bigger role than anticipated in a cull originally designed partially to test the effectiveness of shooting ‘free-running badgers’ from the very first year onwards, to moving cages and bait points much further away from targeted setts (making them somewhat less effective) to slapping cages down set and ready to trap*, we’ve documented so many ‘evolutions’ over this period.
*normally cull operatives would bait an area initially, then place down a cage, but tie it open in order to get badgers used to the change in their environment and not view it as a threat. After a week or so the cage would then be set and be ready to trap. As this meant the cage was at greater risk of being spotted / monitored we saw areas being baited for a few days and then cages suddenly appearing on a morning or early afternoon, ready to trap. Still lethal, though less effective than the methods the operatives would prefer to use.
In 2013 there was one local area where an operative was taking cages away from a sett in the mornings and returning them in the evenings, but considering the workload involved, the numbers of cages used in some zones and the fact that badgers won’t be as trusting of a cage which has just suddenly appeared in their territory as opposed to hanging around, non-threatening, for several days or weeks, it’s not a tactic employed by large numbers of cullers.
And yet, earlier this week, an area was checked one evening and bait points were found next to a ‘prepared’ area which suggested a cage might be put down at a future point. Locals checked the area just an hour later, to get a feel for the place for future checks, and a cage had already been put down. Cullers seem to think that our sett checks only happen during the day, but as autonomous groups and individuals often check areas local to them, checks can happen whenever someone is free, day or night.
Support our work if you can – PayPal.me/badgerwelfare – and give us a shout if you need advice on tackling badger persecution in your own area or would like to come help around Gloucestershire
