Badger Work Pre-2000s

 During 1993/1994 I was contacting people left, right and centre including the RSPCA as they listed the Bristol Badger watch on their page (still do). Absolutely no luck and so I set up the Bristol Badger Group. I have been asked before how one joins? One doesn't.

BBG is not a social meet up for tea and biscuits.  I keep a record of badgers killed in Bristol (The Bristol Badger Death Register) and a very private list of where badger setts are located. I do not care if you want to film a documentary on urban badgers or whether you are the BBC: you do not get to know where a badger sett is.

DEFRA and the current anti badger Labour Party are continuing badger culls despite stating that they do no good. By the 2030s it is possible that urban badgers may be all that is left in the UK. 300.000 already killed and now more slated to be killed.

I found, through the fox work oddly enough, a lady who used to do badger work and also worked on foxes. As she is getting on in years I have not given her name (this is the internet after all). She gave a glimpse into the Old School work up to 1994, when the badger group folded.

"Dear Terry,

"Mike Collins did post mortems in his back garden! One day he had a dead badger that had turned into wax. I am not sure what this was, I used to leave all the science to Mike. He used to go on radio and TV to talk about the Krebs report for badgers and had a regular slot on Bristol radio Shepherd's way.

"He told me that there were at least 5 badger setts at ************, due to be redeveloped at the time, he said that the welfare of these badger setts was concerning.

"He also told me that the development of the land either side of the M32 would adversely impact the badger setts there. He used to have an arrangement with Highways to collect the dead badgers on the road and he used to determine the cause of death, not always a road traffic accident, possibly run over afterwards in some cases.

"Mike was a very calm, very scientific person, very accurate in everything he did. He kept exacting records of every location and case. He was working on a thorough map of badger setts in the wider Bristol region, when sadly he died. He was connected to the Somerset Badger Group and so it is possible that they have his old record books. His wife was extremely nice and understanding that he spent so much of his free time saving badgers and other wildlife. It may be that she kept the record books, I just don't know. But he had logged extensive records of all the badger setts in this area, including the ones at *******. (There are probably photos of me in them, holding measurement rulers up to my ankles in mud, on cold winter days!)

"It might be that your group already know all this and maybe have the records. 

"I feel I have to pass this info on to responsible younger/ more active people as I am getting on in age now and I feel I have to pass it on in order to help the wildlife that I have tried to help and protect for so many years."

Quite honestly I would love for any dead badgers to undergo post mortems but unless there are suspicious circumstances our hands are tied by Health & Safety Executive "because" of the BTB 'threat'.

We will, however, continue to monitor and record.