Innocent Badger

The Sunday Telegraph first broke the story last week that STC had recieved footage of a farmers badger cull meeting, that footage was captured by a newly formed group of experienced investigators “Covert Film Unit”.

The guardian followed up the story yesterday with the revelation that a police officer had referred to badger cull protestors as “idiots”, he also told farmers:
“be alert for trail cameras on set traps. they will set trail cams right. they will make sure your procedures are right. if you find one. give me a call give the officers a call. i’ll come out and get it. they won’t get it back.”

Ironically, we are now working with the police and have handed over all the footage and signed statements as one person appeared to be stealing ammunition at the meeting, we aren’t overly confident of what the outcome will be, but we will pursue it in a professional manner, as we would with any crime commited by badger cullers.

We will be publishing footage on the facebook “Stop the Cull” page from the meeting every few days, there is over 14 hours of it.

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Transcript (“….”was inaudible):

0 is it a hassle to look after….. 
anyway it won’t take long we’re year two … and what I’ll go through it’s common sense…. There we go …
What we went with last year, if you were awake…. to evaluate a potentially threatening situation and choosing the best response. two being create space. i.e. if someone is there move away so that effectively gives you that space between you and them. right er. Not that threatening. 
Observe their body for threats. right again…… if someone shouts you’ve got issues. …

1
get out of the area if you can. ….Locate your exits again. …..if they get your attention..by all means … be polite. if you’re under pressure. be polite . If they’re on your land you might just want to thump them, you can’t. right .Because they’ll be filming you. Just say “you’re on private property, get off my land” withdraw and you’ve left. Communicate only if necessary, again just state to them “you’re on private land” and leave. talk as little as possible. Because they love an argument, they’re very good at arguing. In fact they take control of the situation they get that kind of ….. just tell them they’re on your land and get out of the way. Rising conflict
 recognising escalation and the signs. common sense.
2
….in the pub, Angry non verbal signals. …. aggressive eye contact. Angry facial features. As I said last year, that’s my wife. Increasingly vulgar abusive or threatening language, if we get to that stage ….get out of there if you can. If your personal space is being invaded ….if they come up to you…
Last year. Protesters, what should we do, identifying protesters….. you know different types because of fashions. The high vis vests will stick to public paths, alright, The other idiots

3
were running around last year in balaclavas. … there weren’t many of them…. they won’t cause any problems they’ll just try and stop you ….. keep your distance avoid confrontation if you can. if you’re carrying firearms you should always make them safe at all times….You’re a professional with firearms, you know what you do, there’s nothing more we can say. Now to the point of… validation…situation and mental protesting…. And keep containing emotion up for a long time. …is your first port of call. ….and they rely on that.
… two.you are confronted by protesters who are shouting abuse at you and you feel threatened: what should you do? Not lamp them. Alright. One ensure to remain calm. And ….

4
because they say they face violence and intimidation….do not get into a shouting match with them for obvious reasons. Because ….. they’ll be filming. …put it on the internet. Their supporters will see that … if possible say film them. Because they hate being filmed. You turn up and you’re wearing a cam and you’re filming them they will, their behaviour will differ to if you weren’t filming. if you can be clever, box clever, and erm they won’t have anywhere to go with it…. And leave the area if its safe to do so. Right. when we say safe to do so in your vehicle you’ve got er badgers bagged obviously what they could do they’ll nick it, before you know you’re on the front page of the paper. …. all over the internet…. Badgers found… illegally trapped.

5
…professional.. . you’re being followed to your car by persons you think look like protesters. What should you do? Again if people are following you to your car … will be the ones who .were last year .in balaclavas. poor old … from last year….. in another area round pilton, smashed every day. By these idiots. And thats what they’ll do. Right…….call the police station, say … Balaclavas. Thats the last thing we want. as you say. Report the situation. If you’re not …… immediately state your location, they possibly block you and film your vehicle. as we said last year ….. bin bags… vehicles with cameras inside…. record the vehicles registration. essential … to us, to find out who they are and where they are from. do not take the vehicle to your home address. or location of work for obvious reasons.

6
… a shooter…. take them… is what we’d do last year…. obviously not at speed. keep updating them and await further advice from them. they would be your first port of call and theyll advise you what to do. normally they in that situation they’ll …. all the time think safety. do not get into a confrontation. obviously i keep harping on about it. back round last year that gang they were … they were out, every single day, every single night, they were a bunch of bodies, idiots. not at all …… i call that, i tell you what, some situations they were in i’d have had trouble keeping my hands to myself. ….. be professional about it. …. expectations right, during the cull there are dedicated uniformed police officers working in this area. there area again………

7
…….
at the same time… local officers will be dispateched from places like south molton, tiverton, ….they are all tied up… if it gets that busy and there will be officers there. right, each area has a CLO, myself which you all know from last year anyway. in short with crime and informational reporting to the nfu….. with the police… it’s a problem that people are experiencing …. straight away and that’s not an option.
traps are damaged tends to apply… opportunity. … damaged, should be reported to the nfu. i don’t know off the top of my head how many traps reported last year.

8
bloody black pilot, loads. loads of broken. loads of taken. i know a lot of people even now they’ve given up on traps because they were absolutely targeted last year, and stick to shooting. not every CLO makes …. with reagrds any crimes. going back to what becky said, if you believe a police officer has contacted you, right the only officer who should be contacting you should be me, right. if i’m off duty then another CLO will . if you’re worried about it, put the phone down, text me, we’ll update anyone. i’ll get back to you and find out from jean who’s at work. we had this last year and it was jean. …. be alert for trail cameras on set traps. they will set trail cams right. they will make sure your procedures are right. if you find one. give me a call give the officers a call. i’ll come out and get it. they won’t get it back. f you do have members of the community being adversely affected. again, this is your …

9
.. you can try, put up, shut up. if you see someone struggling struggling with the cull, struggling with the pressure, right, we had this last year . they will highlight that shit, right. don’t let that person suffer. you know what they’re like right. ……. they’re able to… give that person problems. if you see someone suffering… if they’re struggling… welfare and protection of…
all officers will be impartial, open and transparents. they have a duty to facilitate lawful activity, but also to facilitate lawful protest. this was tested last year and we lost. three times we lost in a court. … last year for people who were agravatted tresspass.. and the court threw it out. thids year w’ve … that erm this year gathered that and black pilot this year we will try and we will test it this year and see how we get on. alright.

Huge thanks to the “Covert Film Unit” for their dedication and professionalism, also huge thank you to the people who cleaned up the audio and then transcribed it, it was invaluable for getting the press interest.

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