Thanks to Midlands 103 Radio for highlighting the Department of Agriculture's cruel badger snaring and killing operation.

In a report headed "Westmeath Leads Midlands In Badger Culling", it was stated that "over 600 badgers have been culled in the midlands so far this year." https://www.midlands103.com/news/midlands-news/westmeath-leads-midlands-in-badger-culling 

The sickening figure was released by Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue to Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns TD.

Most of the victims of the Department's badger snaring in the midlands were in County Westmeath where 364 badgers were caught and killed. 170 badgers were killed in Offaly and 89 in Laois.

Westmeath was the second worst county for badger killings after County Cork. 

Up to 11 October, a total of 3,758 badgers had been snared and killed around Ireland in 2023. They were all killed as part of the Department of Agriculture's failed TB Eradication Scheme. This is in addition to the 5,258 badgers caught and killed in 2022. 

Despite the fact that the unfortunate badgers are all caught by snares, Minister McConalogue is outrageously continuing to claim that “my Department does not use snares for the capture of badgers.”

“All badgers captured are caught using a stopped body restraint,” he told Deputy Cairns, using a euphemism for what is a cruel wire snare.

The snaring of badgers – a supposedly protected species in Ireland – is shamefully licensed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service, which is the responsibility of Green Party Minister of State for Nature Malcolm Noonan..

Responding to a similar Dail Question from Deputy Cairns on 25 April 2023, Minister McConalogue stated at the time that “no badgers were found dead in stopped body restraints” but in his reply to the latest question, he maintained that the Department of Agriculture “does not record if a badger is alive or dead in a restraint in a culling area”.

He stated that “badgers that are dispatched” are either shot dead or killed “by the administration of IV barbiturates by a Veterinary Inspector”.

The sickening figures released by Minister McConalogue show 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 (389), Westmeath (364), Clare (335), Galway (280), Kerry (277), Tipperary (258), Cavan (226) and Roscommon (214).

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 five years was 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

Bernie Barrett of Badger Watch Ireland has 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.”

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

ACTION ALERT

Urge the Minister for Agriculture to permanently end the cruel badger snaring 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 Minister of State for Nature to end the National Parks and Wildlife Service's licensing of badger snaring and killing. 

Malcolm Noonan TD (Green Party, Carlow Kilkenny)
Minister of State for Heritage
Tel: (01) 618 3148 OR (01) 618 3156
Email: mos@housing.gov.ie; malcolm.noonan@oireachtas.ie; minister@housing.gov.ie; natureconservation@housing.gov.ie; WildlifeLicence@housing.gov.ie; pippa.hackett@oireachtas.ie
(CC: Green Party Senator Pippa Hackett, Minister of State for Land Use and Biodiversity in the Department of Agriculture)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/votemalcolmnoonan1/
X: https://twitter.com/noonan_malcolm

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 - 2023 (up to 11 October)

Carlow 0
Cavan 226
Clare 335
Cork North 190
Cork South 199
Donegal 0
Dublin 11
Galway 280
Kerry 277
Kildare 158
Kilkenny 51
Laois 89
Leitrim 0
Limerick 112
Longford 0
Louth 0
Mayo 169
Meath 117
Monaghan 101
Offaly 170
Roscommon 214
Sligo 141
Tipperary 258
Waterford 38
Westmeath 364
Wexford 94
Wicklow 164

Total: 3,758

SEE ALSO

Irish Dept of Agriculture sought up to 50,000 badger snares
https://banbloodsports.wordpress.com/2023/07/22/irish-dept-of-agriculture-sought-up-to-50000-badger-snares/

1000s of snared badgers killed by gunshot or barbiturates
https://banbloodsports.wordpress.com/2023/06/07/1000s-of-snared-badgers-killed-by-gunshot-or-barbiturates/

Pet dog caught in Department badger snare
https://www.donegaldaily.com/2023/03/20/badger-trap-which-caught-pet-dog-was-property-of-dept-of-agriculture/