ABSTRACT
Special protection under the law is given to some animals, such as badgers and deer.
Badger baiting was first made illegal in 1835 (see Chapter 2). However, badgers were still hunted with dogs. Badgers were protected under the 1973 Badgers Act, which made it a criminal offence to ‘cruelly ill treat’ a badger or use badger tongs in the course of killing, taking a badger or to dig for any badger. However, due to pressure from hunters, the Badgers Act emerged from Parliament with a serious flaw, in that landowners and their agents were exempted from the prohibitions on badger persecution on their own land. In 1981 the law was tightened up in the Wildlife and Countryside Act; Parliament removed the ‘landowner’s loophole’ and made it an offence to be in possession of a badger or any part of a badger. Further attempts to tighten the law by protecting badger setts, in addition to the badger, failed due to objections from the hunting fraternity. This loophole was exploited – hunters could claim they were looking for foxes when digging, and it was difficult to prove their intentions. When the Wildlife and Countryside Amendment Act was passed in 1985 the government reversed the onus of proof in cases brought against those suspected of digging for badgers.
