Notes from St Tiggywinkles: Callous use of sadistic snares

Sorry to start the New Year with a horror story but this badger has just ‘landed in my lap’.
Badger PNL-150501-120331001Badger PNL-150501-120331001
Badger PNL-150501-120331001

I thrive on my faith in human nature but just a few people I meet are callous, uncaring and even sadistic.

This time I had seen it all before, a badger almost cut in half by a snare.

It despairs me that some snares are still legal simply because if set properly they do not strangle the victim but play fast and loose with it keeping it alive until the snarer comes along and humanely despatches it.

They are legally obliged to check their snares twice daily but judging by the injuries we see this is not the case.

If they did, or perhaps they do, they would see that the snare tangles, frays and locks.

They do not strangle the badger, it gets caught around the body and tightens as in the case of this latest casualty.

This can be other animals including dogs, cats, foxes and even deer in its indiscrimination for torture.

This badger was lucky, it was still alive and rescued.

The injury was typical of the snare not being checked during the twelve hours and even worse this snare was actually set illegally.

Horrifically this victim reminds me of a previous badger casualty where the pressure necrosis caused by the snare around his body had cut so relentlessly into his body that he fell in half.

All the efforts of our vet and the surgical gauze provided by Stoke Mandeville Hospital could not save its life.

The callousness of the snarers is so nasty that if they find an angry, tortured, dangerous badger in one of their snares they will simply cut the snare leaving the badger a lengthy and painful death.

When walking in the countryside we may come upon animals caught in snares.

They all need medical attention and should not be cut free until one of our rescuers or RSPCA personnel can get them safely back to Tiggywinkles.

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