A number of wild mammal species in the UK have ‘protection’ under the laws of the component countries and in this and some subsequent blogs we are going to look at how that works and how effective or otherwise it actually is.

Over the past weeks and months we have been contacted by a number of individuals and organisations with concerns about specific cases where ‘protected’ wild mammals have apparently suffered persecution. In many cases we have been able to suggest how and to whom, those concerns should be reported. In some cases action may still be under way and we will not comment on them but in others nothing has been done. In this blog and others to follow we will highlight a few typical cases that have come to our attention.

Last year we were contacted by a lady who lives in a cottage on the outskirts of a town in the Central Belt of Scotland. There is a badger sett in her garden and she was concerned that the badgers were being hunted and shot by individuals from neighbouring land. This had been going on for some time and she had reported it to the appropriate authorities but without any effective action taking place. Shooting badgers is generally an offence under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 and trespass with a firearm is covered by the Firearms Act 1968. In spite of there being laws to prevent someone wandering around a woodland at night shooting badgers and sometimes trespassing on private land to do so the situation continues and the badger clan is being gradually wiped out.

Clearly whatever the law may say there will always be people prepared to break it and police resources are necessarily finite and often over-stretched. Wildlife persecution offences can be difficult to detect and even harder to prosecute. Setting priorities will always be necessary. But badger persecution is a priority for police in the UK and they have specialist wildlife officers who are supposed to be available to deal with the very real practical difficulties that such cases present. In this case and a number of others involving badgers that we are aware of the system does not seem to be working. We have now seen enough of these cases to feel that this is a serious problem UK wide.

Politicians rightly pass laws to protect us, our property and the environment. These laws may be excellent in their intention. They may be well drafted and give considerable powers to investigators. They may provide the courts with adequate penalties but if they are not used they are pointless. Politicians who draw our attention to the laws they have enacted need to be reminded that without the resources and will to enforce them they are worse than useless. They give the general public the impression that a species is being protected when in many cases this ‘protection’ is simply a dead letter.