Innocent Badger

Since exposing the governments role in purchasing emergency services radio equipment, the badger cull has started to de-rail. We now have reports from insiders in two cull zones that the tetra radio equipment has now been withdrawn.

 

The fear is that anti cull saboteurs, now equipped with tetra radio detection units, will be able to quickly find free shooters and body vans.

If tetra radios have been withdrawn, we expect the police, defra and natural england to now have another omnishambles on their hands. Over and over throughout the badger killers risk assessment they are told if a serious incident occurs they must contact their control room ASAP. How can they do that with mobile phones when many of the cull zones have patchy reception? A: they can’t.

Please as a matter of urgency (the cull could start any day, it is weeks overdue already) email:
BTB@naturalengland.org.uk, pcc@wiltshire.pcc.pnn.gov.uk,  ContactPCC@PCCDorset.org.uk, opcc@devonandcornwall.pnn.police.uk, pcc@gloucestershire.pnn.police.uk, pcc@avonandsomerset.pnn.police.uk, police.crime.commissioner@cheshire.pnn.police.uk, defra.helpline@defra.gsi.gov.uk

To whom it may concern,
Now that badger cull companies are withdrawing tetra/airwaves equipment from those involved in free shooting badgers and instructing them to instead use mobile phones, can you please tell me how serious incidents with firearms will be reported by them when they are in an area of a badger cull with no mobile phone signal.

I eagerly await your reply

yours sincerely

Dairy farms in North Wiltshire today were found to have signs of prebaiting, they also had Cadbury’s suppliers signs up.

If you’d like to contact Manor Farm directly:
J.D Spencer & Sons. Manor Farm, Langley Burrell, Chippenham, Wiltshire, SN15 4LL. Telephone: 01249 653261.

This won’t be the first time this farm has been in the spotlight, only a few years ago they were found guilty of polluting water.

People are currently out across the country looking for and finding peanuts that are being used to “prebait” badgers, the intention of farmers is to then entice badgers to locations where they can shoot them with rifles, or trap them in cages and blast them with shotguns.

Why are Cadbury’s happy to have suppliers that are killing badgers in a way branded inhumane by the British Veterinary Society? We hop all their customers will ask them, please do contact them as a matter of urgency on social media, email, telephone and ask them to stop purchasing milk from farms that kill badgers:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CadburyUK/
twitter: https://twitter.com/CadburyUK  @CadburyUk
email Cadbury uk president Mary Barnard: mary.barnard@mdlz.com
free phone cadbury: 0800 818 181

If we haven’t heard that Cadbury are dropping badger killing farms by 5pm Friday 8th September, we shall start work on getting stickers (for putting on choc bars), leaflets and posters ready for a full on boycott campaign.

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Farmers weekly this morning:
Defra is expected to make an announcement on the resumption and expansion of the badger cull around mid-September.

A spokesman for Natural England said it had received 13 applications for culling licences in new areas for 2017.

But she added: “I am unable to confirm any further details as Natural England is currently considering these applications, as part of the usual licensing process.

“There is no set date for when the outcome of these applications will be announced.”

In the history of these badger culls, this is unprecedented. Licences are always published before 30th of August each year. Culling usually begins last week in August or the first week in September.

You can check previous years licences and explanations of the target number to kill here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/bovine-tb-controlling-the-risk-of-bovine-tb-from-badgers

Supplementary licences have been issued for Somerset and Gloucestershire, you can read more about that here.

So we are left with the question, why are Somerset and Gloucestershire now licenced to go, but none of the other 8 culls zones which are already liceneced. Why should those previously licenced areas be put on hold whilst Natural England makes decisions on new licences.

It’s not only baffling anti cull activists, it’s creating a massive stir inside the farming communities, we have recieved multiple pieces of information all saying very similar things, that their is a serious issue between Defra and the Police. Cull company organisers are having emergency meetings and thats not surprising, when you have a badger cull organised and a team of employees who have been contracted to start the end of August.

Our best guess based on what we know is that the serious issue is a safety issue, that safety issue if it was related to free shooting, could mean that gloucestershire and somerset go ahead with only cage trapping until the free shooting issue is resolved (this is a guess and we would urge people in both areas to remain vigilant, nothing is known for certain at this point).

We can’t think of any other element of the badger culls that the police would be involved with other than safety. Perhaps ministers need to sign off on something before the culls can go ahead, MP’s are back in the house of commons on September 5th.

We can exlusively release the badger cull contractors risk assessment.

What is clear from reading the contractors risk assessment is that time and again shooters have to report to base during any incident and they must always have a radio and a phone. Experience tells us, that cage trappers didn’t get radios after the first year, but the free shooting contractors did.

With safety of the shooters hinging on their radios, perhaps the recent expose that they use emergency services radio kit paid for by the taxpayer really is a very vulnerable weak point. Saboteurs are keen to get into the field with tetra detecting equipment and one fact we do know;
Defra & the NFU are very unhappy.

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A recent expose showed that shooters are using the emergency services radio bandwidth, and that has safety implications for everyone. Not just badgers.

“Stop the Cull” recently found that badger cull shooters were having their radio equipment bought for them by taxpayers, that kit operates on the same frequencies as the emergency services, you can read about it here. (guardian link)

This story brings up a number of serious issues, as the headline in the guardian states, tax payers money is being spent on a cull that was supposed to be paid for by the farming community. Whilst many people will be rightly angry about that, a far more serious issue is being overlooked; Safety.

Shooters contracts specifically state that:

“If a contractor encounters anyone in the area of their intended activity they are to cease operations immediately and withdraw from the area, without engaging anyone and informing the operations centre of the event as soon as possible.”

Last year in a few areas some of the shooters completely ignored their “contractor risk assessment” which they had signed.

We know from this same document that all contractors are to have radios AND mobile phones fully charged when they go out and must radio in when they get home after a nights culling.

Many areas of the badger cull are in remote rural locations with poor mobile signal, the tetra hand sets are vital for shooters at night if they are to operate safely. That safety has now been obliterated by anti cull activists having tetra detectors.

But the real risk isn’t from anti cull activists. Criminals or terrorists could now feasibly purchase tetra detection devices, go into a cull zone, cover their faces, shine a torch into a shooters face and when the shooter stands down, overwhelm them and take their gun from them. Whether or not this is likely to happen is debatable, BUT if shooters are concerned that they might face having weapons stolen from them then it massively increases the chances of serious violence to occur.

For the anti cull movement, tetra detection is just another wave of technology being used against badger killers, Thermal Imaging drones are also being deployed and these will also help to locate badgers in traps.

Please as a matter of urgency contact Avon and Somerset police AND Gloucestershire police commisioners and ask them to review their forces recommendations of tetra handsets, use your own words, or copy and paste our letter below into an email:

pcc@gloucestershire.pnn.police.uk, pcc@avonandsomerset.pnn.police.uk

Dear Mr. Surl & Ms.Mountstevens,

I understand that the badger cull licence states:
“Natural England may revoke a licence at any time following advice from the police on public order issues.”
I ask you to revoke the licence on the grounds of public safety.

If you are not willing to revoke the licences, the very least you could do is to remove tetra handsets from shooters who go out at night.

The shooters are contracted to stand down when members of the public are near.

They could be easily found now due to the tetra detection devices and anyone wanting to steal a firearm could as a consequence of the polices decision to give them this kit, easily locate and overwhelm them.

We have strong gun control in this country and that is a good thing, it prevents criminals and people from terror organisations like daesh and the national front from getting hold of shotguns and high powered rifles.
With shooters being aware of this potential threat, they may well become aggressive towards any civilians and no one wants to see violent confrontations involving firearms.
I eagerly await your response.

regards

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Back in August 2013 we took a snapshot of the breakdowns inside where we expected the North Dorset badger cull to be taking place, there were 36 outbreaks. New cattle movement controls came in soon after which were expected to help manage the disease.

Nearly two years later in June 2015 we took another snapshot of exactly the same area, tight controls had seemed to work with a steep drop in outbreaks from 36 down to 20. A couple of months later in September 2015 the culls began, for the first time in N.Dorset.

The government promised that bTB would drop by roghly 15-30% DURING badger culls, we have compiled the government data again today (from ibtb.co.uk) and can exclusively reveal that bTB has now gone up by 250%. From the initial 20 outbreaks before the first cull to exactly 50 two years later.

Please contact your Mp and demand that they explain why the badger culls are continuing when there is no evidence showing that bTB has lowered due to culling.

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In the run up to the election “stop the cull” facebook page spent money on promoting posts into pro hunt and pro badger cull mp’s constituencies. Of the 11 targetted, 6 are now no longer MP’s:
Neal Carmicheal (stroud)
Gavin Barwell (croydon)
Ben Howlett (bath)
Karl Mcartney (lincoln)
David Nuttall (bury north)
Victoria Borwick (kensington)

the five that stayed were: George Eustice (his majority was slashed from 7000 down to 1,500). Phillip Davies (majority of 9,600 cut in half to 4,800). Alex Chalk (6,000 majority slashed to 2,500) Richar Drax remained fairly unchanged and Michelle Donelan who’s majority increased!! (this is assumed due to previously 5 parties going for the seat and this year only 3)

These tory mp’s were chosen because they were close to cull zones and/or notorious for other heinous tory crimes as well as being pro cull or pro hunt.
Gavin Barwell was specifically chosen because of his position as housing minister, he had high numbers of people in his own constituency that had lived in B&Bs for many many months, he had also voted for the badger cull. Our plan was to try and find overlapping causes for voters to be repulsed by their tory candidates. This was the picture that was sent into the croydon area via facebook:

A few days after the election, Theresa May had to sack her close advisors due to the awful job they’d done of the election. In stepped Gavin Barwell as the new chief of staff. Just days after his appointment it became clear that as housing minister he had sat on reports rather than acting on them, this included putting sprinklers in tower blocks.

So a lot of people are now very angry with him and we think it’s only right that people write to him (politely of course) or ring him up and ask him questions about why he sits on reports and also why he voted for a badger cull.

please keep all calls polite and please do not put his phone number into sites you may find after googling “request callback safety”
maybe as chief of staff he’ll come to realise that killing badgers isn’t a policy the tories should be pursuing.

Charlotte Reynolds was filming at her friend Sophie Poole’s BBQ when Billy Brough turned up with a badger (his google account here), holding it by the scruff he shows it to Mark who then gets bitten.

The video was seen by many thousands of people online and a number of newspapers ran with it as a story, you can view the video here. You can read the daily mail coverage of the story here.

The RSPCA and the police are now investigating under the protection of badgers act 92, as it is illegal to take a badger.

Earlier today we reported that the incident was believed to have happened at Alcott farm, We were tipped off that that was the location and when we did checks on Sophie Poole’s facebook page we could see she is friends with the people who run the farm.
Alcott farm are categorically denying that this bbq took place and further that Sophie is not related, we think its worth giving them the benefit of the doubt until further evidence is uncovered.

*UPDATE* we are now convinced that Alcott farm is not in any way involved and we apologise unreservedly for naming them. If you have reviewed their facebook page, please delete the review as soon as possible.

 

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Do you want your pet dog or cat looked after by the Atherstone Hunt?

Davret Boarding Kennels & Cattery is run by Atherstone Hunt joint master James Sharland and his dad David Sharland who is also involved in the hunt.

The Atherstone Hunt are constantly losing control of their hounds, they’ve been documented running all over busy main roads, chasing and killing foxes and rampaging through people’s back gardens that could easily have had pets in them (http://bit.ly/2mPtnrW). Last season they even chased a dog walkers dog through Battram woods in Ibstock (http://bit.ly/2nsPOQI). These very same people are running a boarding kennels and cattery to look after people’s pets.

Do you want your pet cat or dog looked after by the notorious Atherstone Hunt, well known for its concern for animal welfare?

If you do the details are below.
Davret Boarding Kennels & Cattery
8 Station Rd, Elmesthorpe, Leicester, Leicestershire, LE9 7SG
Tel: 01455 842673
http://bit.ly/2mftqJw
https://www.yell.com/biz/davret-boarding-kennels-and-cattery-leicester-1531250/

The recent news that a pack of hounds has contracted Bovine TB is sending shock waves through the hunting fraternity, the farmers guardian covered the story here. With the view that

“It is thought the hunt, which offers a fallen stock service to local farmers, contracted the disease from a contaminated bovine.”

Defra hastily put out advice on pets and bTB on the 3rd of March, how a dog could become infected was explained:
“Pets can become infected in a number of ways including ingestion (by mouth), for example by drinking unpasteurised infected cow’s milk or eating carcases (sic) of infected animals; and aerosols (breathing in) which could arise from close contact with infected farm animals, wildlife or other infected pets. Pets can also become infected through bite wounds, either from being bitten by an infected animal or if a wound gets infected by bacteria present in the environment.”

Hunts up and down the country offer the service of collecting dead cattle/sheep from farmers fields, saving the farmer a small amount of money and time. In return the hunt get to feed their hounds and usually get to hunt on the farmers land. This relationship between farmers and hunts hit a rocky patch back in the 90’s when BSE hit, new regulations meant that all cattle carcasses had to be incinerated to stop the spread of the disease. The cost of these incinerators had to be carried by the hunts who in some areas attempted to pass the cost on to farmers, with little luck.

This defra PDF lists all the licensed premises that can handle animal by products, most of the UK’s hunts can be found listed here.

With the transmission route from cattle to the hounds and potentially the hounds on to the cattle and surrounding wildlife still uncertain (they may have contracted the disease from any number of sources). It would make some sense for the government to bring in measures to immediately curtail the infection and potential ongoing spread of the disease.

We think that two simple measures should be taken up immediately:

1. The testing of all hunting hound packs for bTB
2. The vaccination of all hounds that consume uncooked “fallen stock”

Please as a matter of urgency contact your MP here and request these two measures are implemented immediately to stop any further spread of bTB.

We are currently looking at the cost of PCR testing, which would enable us to check hounds feaces for bTB. As soon as we have the costings, we will launch a crowdfunder if the project is feasible. Collecting the samples may involve some covert methods…

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Many people were horrified last week after watching a brutal assault of a saboteur, by a terrierman from the ledbury hunt. Calls were put out to find out if anyone knew who this man was and the attack gained a large amount of mainstream media attention.

Tracking him down didn’t prove to be very difficult, one of the riders of the Ledbury tipped us off within 48 hours as to his name, we rang him today pretending to be a freelance journalist and asking for his side of the story, when asked why he attacked the saboteur he simply said “he’s a coward and got what was coming to him”.

He went on to say that saboteurs are “all vicious thugs”, he also asked us not to put his name in the paper.

He runs a tree surgery company, the details of which you can find and review here: https://www.yell.com/biz/broadleaf-tree-care-malvern-7814077/

You can watch the video here.

 

 

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