Innocent Badger

This is an old image from 2010, when officers escorted badger killers onto land in Wales so they could kill. They had to go in mob handed due to local protests, in fact there was so many people protesting that the cull never got under way in that area properly and had to be abandoned.

Fast forward 8 years to today and has anything changed? it seems not, although the police often state that they are in the zones to facilitate lawful protest, the reality is often very different.

This year police are stretched much further, as government cuts have bitten deeper into their budget, so it does seem odd that the diminished police forces think they can bully us, but thats exactly what two forces have tried to do over the weekend.

On Friday night in Wiltshire, two people sat in a car were arrested, the police at no point in time suggested that they had done anything wrong, they were arrested for “intending” to steal and commit criminal damage. The evidence? a sticker found in the car saying “sab the cull”.

In the hours before the arrest, 4 police cars were seen and gangs of officers spotted patrolling constantly around a single farm, we aren’t sure if there is a connection, but the farm is a client of “Old Mill” the acountants whose client list was recently leaked.

The police held them overnight and released them the next day, in the process of interview it became obvious that there was not one piece of evidence to suggest these two people had done anything unlawful at all. That hasn’t stopped the police from taking thermal imaging equipment, mobile phones and radios and keeping hold of it, they have refused to give it back and told those arrested it may take 6 weeks (after the cull has finished)

One of the people arrested was taking medication, the police refused access to their meds for nearly two hours. Neither of them were given food for the 12 hours they were in either.

Please do pop over to Wilts police facebook page and tell them your thoughts.

Meanwhile over in Devon, the police there have had a similar idea of trying to stop activists, by issuing a “section 35” notice, effectively stopping a specific group of people from going into an area. That area is a farm, where we can expect shooters to be out in force tonight killing as many badgers as they like undisturbed.

That farm is also a client of Old Mill, a coincidence? we don’t know.

What we do know is that a Chief Inspector signed off on this section 35 notice and this particular CI is well known to us for being very much on side with the hunting fraternity.

You can find Devon and Cornwall Police on facebook here.

We will not be bullied by the police, nor will we stand idly by and allow people to kill badgers with the police protecting them. If police want to crack down on us, they need to have a long hard think about what the consequences will be.