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The Minister of Agriculture has revealed that the thousands of badgers cruelly snared by his Department are killed by gunshot or with an injection of barbiturates.

Minister Charlie McConalogue (Fianna Fail) was responding to a Dail Question from Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns TD who asked “if he will clarify the methods used to kill badgers snared by Departmental operatives; what happens to the remains of the badgers; and what terms and conditions are attached to the licence issued by the NPWS which facilitates the killing.”

Minister McConalogue told her that the snared badgers are killed “by the use of a licensed firearm or by the administration of barbiturates by a Departmental Veterinary Inspector”. 

“All badger carcasses are sent to either a contracted private, or my Department's, laboratories for post mortem examination,” he added.

He went on to give details about the conditions of the snaring licences shamefully issued by the National Parks and Wildlife Service to catch these supposedly “protected” animals. These, he said, include the condition that “the NPWS are informed of numbers and locations of badgers captured” and that “conditions laid down in various wildlife acts, regulations and statutory instruments are adhered to”.

He ridiculously maintained that the licence conditions ensure that “procedures are followed to ensure there is no unnecessary suffering or stress for any badgers captured”. The act of snaring badgers - with what Minister McConalogue euphemistically calls a “stopped body restraint” - and denying them their freedom as they frantically try to escape is inevitably going to cause suffering and stress.

Bernie Barrett of Badger Watch Ireland has in the past described how badgers suffer under the Department’s scheme: “The method of capture is a barbaric wire snare which holds the helpless badger in excruciating pain until it is dispatched by gunshot. That’s provided the animal has not agonisingly strangled itself beforehand. When nursing female badgers are snared and shot, their cubs are left to starve to death underground.”

According to the Irish Wildlife Trust: “Badgers can die over extended periods struggling in these hideous devices while their young starve underground. Not only is it barbaric and unethical, recent findings have shown it to be ineffective in the war on bovine TB. Nobody has ever counted badgers accurately in this country and while it has always been assumed that they are common animals, this can no longer be taken for granted.”

In a previous parliamentary question, Deputy Cairns uncovered the shocking fact that 5,258 badgers were snared and killed by the Department of Agriculture last year and another 2,121 have been killed so far in 2023 as part of its failed TB Eradication Scheme.

The sickening death data released by Minister McConalogue shows that badgers were snared and killed in most counties in 2022 and to-date in 2023. Last year, the counties where the highest number of badgers were snared and killed were Cork (703), Westmeath (468), Clare (404), Tipperary (376), Kerry (348), Galway (329), Roscommon (278), Offaly (276), Mayo (239), Monaghan (225), Sligo (220) and Wicklow (205). Scroll down for full list.

The counties with the highest number of badgers snared and killed so far in 2023 are Cork (268), Clare (229), Kerry (161), Galway (158), Westmeath (152), Roscommon (147), Offaly (112) and Tipperary (108).

The latest killings are among an estimated 120,000 badgers caught and killed by the Department of Agriculture since 1984.

It emerged in 2021 that the vast majority of the badgers killed by the Department and later tested for TB were found to NOT have the disease.

Responding to a Dail Question from Paul Murphy TD at the time, Minister McConalogue revealed that up to 80% of badgers killed and later tested for the bacteria which causes bovine TB returned negative results.

In 2020, post mortems were carried out on 350 of the thousands of badgers who were killed. Just 102 (or 29%) tested positive, meaning 71% of the badgers killed and tested were not carrying the bacteria. In the previous four years, the figures were

2019 (298 tested – 28% positive, 72% negative),
2018 (281 tested – 24% positive, 76% negative),
2017 (180 tested – 23% positive, 77% negative),
2016 (220 tested – 20% positive, 80% negative). 

The average over the past five years has been 25% positive and 75% negative. The Minister for Agriculture told Deputy Murphy that the killing of all the snared badgers is cheaper than identifying those who are negative or positive – “resource allocation concentrates on removing badgers (between 5,000 and 7,000 per annum in recent years) rather than the expensive test for evidence of the presence of M bovis”.

The snaring has been previously condemned as “slaughter masquerading as science”.

In 2015, a major 4-year research project carried out by the Department of Agriculture, National Parks and Wildlife Service and a team from Trinity College Dublin revealed that badgers actually avoid cattle.

Speaking about the findings of the so-called Wicklow N11 Badger Study, a Department of Agriculture Veterinary Inspector told RTE’s “Living the Wildlife” programme: “What showed up was consistently, all the badgers avoided going in to farm yards. If they did go in to a yard, it was more likely to be a horse yard or a disused yard. They all consistently avoided going in to yards on cattle farms. That was a most unexpected finding.”

Outlining that the study involved 40 badgers who sent back 31,000 locations via attached GPS-enabled collars, the Inspector went on to say: “Badgers will actively avoid going in to fields where there are cattle. So when they go out on their nightly wanderings and they find there are cattle in a field, they’ll divert off somewhere else. And even if that’s one of their preferred foraging areas, they’ll still decide to avoid it.” Watch the Living the Wildlife programme at https://youtu.be/ExBNYCsf7L0

Watch a video showing a badger being rescued from a Department snare
https://youtu.be/kAhoGV13uvc

ACTION ALERT

Urge the Minister for Agriculture to show compassion and permanently end the cruel badger snaring and killing operation.

Charlie McConalogue
Minister for Agriculture
Tel: 01 618 3199 or 01 607 2000
Email: minister@agriculture.gov.ie; charlie.mcconalogue@oireachtas.ie
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CharlieMcConalogue
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/@McConalogue

Appeal to the Heritage Minister and the National Parks and Wildlife Service to stop licensing the snaring and killing of thousands of badgers.

Minister Darragh O’Brien (Fianna Fail, Dublin Fingal)
Tel: (01) 618 3802 OR (086) 251 9893
Email: darragh.obrien@oireachtas.ie; minister@housing.gov.ie; natureconservation@housing.gov.ie; WildlifeLicence@housing.gov.ie
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DarraghOBrienTD
Twitter: http://twitter.com/DarraghOBrienTD

Badgers snared and killed by Department of Agriculture (2022)

Carlow 12
Cavan 275
Clare 404
Cork North 333
Cork South 370
Donegal 20
Dublin 27
Galway 329
Kerry 348
Kildare 176
Kilkenny 36
Laois 147
Leitrim 0
Limerick 177
Longford 0
Louth 0
Mayo 239
Meath 132
Monaghan 225
Offaly 276
Roscommon 278
Sligo 220
Tipperary North 267
Tipperary South 109
Waterford 69
Westmeath 468
Wexford 116
Wicklow East 84
Wicklow West 121

Total: 5,258 

Badgers snared and killed by Department of Agriculture (up to April 2023)

Carlow 0
Cavan 96
Clare 229
Cork North 116
Cork South 152
Donegal 0
Dublin 6
Galway 158
Kerry 161
Kildare 86
Kilkenny 13
Laois 63
Leitrim 0
Limerick 73
Longford 0
Louth 0
Mayo 58
Meath 69
Monaghan 65
Offaly 112
Roscommon 147
Sligo 88
Tipperary North 85
Tipperary South 23
Waterford 31
Westmeath 152
Wexford 44
Wicklow East 38
Wicklow West 56

Total: 2,121