She was a soft target for the trapper.  One of last year’s cubs, likely. She had struggled  in the wire snare for  more than twenty four hours.    It caught her across the groins and abdomen.  The more she struggled, the tighter it became. Four times She had circled a branch on the ditch  in her  attempt to free herself until the branch broke.  This is the barbaric multi-strand wire snare which the Irish Department of Agriculture describes as a ‘restraining harness’ and would have us believe that the snared badger relaxes in it while awaiting its fate.

Exhausted and almost unconscious she  lay   until locals  became aware of her plight. The wire had cut into her body and its marks were plainly seen. The Department will argue that there’s a ‘stop’ on the snare unlike ‘illegal’ snares which are free-running.  The ‘stop’ in  effect holds  the animal in an eleven-inch noose,  far to tight for  an animal the size of a badger.   A vet was called to attend the badger but such were her injuries it was necessary to immediately end  the suffering.