Just home from the pub. On the way back there were a pair of dead badgers in the road. Some what stiff so I guess they had been dead a while. No visible signs of dead or blood leakage.
Why would two dead badgers be in the road. Don’t we shoot them these days?
I’ve tidied them up. When I got home the electric had tripped upstairs. Is it a sign?
How do you tidy up a pair of dead badgers?
How do you tidy up a pair of dead badgers?
Well mostly by gently hoofing them to the roadside to as not cause a diversion.
Ideal slipper sized pelts 🙂
Trapped, gassed then bodies left on road to get hit by a car to make it look like roadkill?
Why would two dead badgers be in the road. Don’t we shoot them these days?
Roadkill badgers are fairly common though. Hit by a car you'd sometimes never even spot the damage unless you looked closely. Seeing two at the same spot? Could be that one was hit and the other went over to have a look.
Could be that one was hit and the other went over to have a look.
Rubber necking bastards
Mebbe. It’s a single lane to nowhere. If you trapped and gassed them then you’ve missed countless acres of non roadside areas to dump a body.
Wondered about TB…
Two Badgers?
Trapped, gassed then bodies left on road to get hit by a car to make it look like roadkill?
Why the need to make it look like an accident?
Are badger deaths investigated if they look suspicious?
Wondered about TB…
You think they might have both died of TB at the same place away from their setts?
Loved the first album
Double vision on the way home from the pub. There was only one.
Loved the first album
Went downhill after the death of the two founding members imo
Meles and meles 🤔
Most forces have a Wildlife Crimes officer. They probably have a CSI (Badger) on call
Unexpected Badger Death was The Fall's second worst album.
Most forces have a Wildlife Crimes officer. They probably have a CSI (Badger) on call
An actual Badger who's trained to conduct investigations? That is a show I would definitely watch.
He's sullen and insular (he is a badger) but peerless in his field, has a difficult relationship with authority but gets the job done the chief respects him but most of their conversations end in shouting and a slammed door. Probably needs more backstory, he's had to move out of the set his wife hasn't stopped loving him but is so frustrated that he neglects his family for his work, and then there's his drinking.
I think I'd prefer a Badger detective to a Badger CSI, with a Geordie accent, prone to swearing and creative put-downs...
Call Netflix, we've got our Pitch!
Roadkill badgers are fairly common though. Hit by a car you’d sometimes never even spot the damage unless you looked closely. Seeing two at the same spot? Could be that one was hit and the other went over to have a look.
Like the hedgehogs in the Animals of Farthing Wood?
Badgers are double hard bastards, as Scotroutes says the damage may not be obvious.
Why the need to make it look like an accident?
You don't dispose of them on your own land because you then end up with bits of dead stinky possibly-TB-ridden badger scattered across your fields, but if you dump them at the side of the road the council comes along and gets rid of the corpse.
LOL @ hoofed to the roadside.
Must be a day for it, I had to swerve the car on my commute this morning to avoid a large dead badger. As I passed I wondered if I had hit it would it impede progress. 🤔
As I passed I wondered if I had hit it would it impede progress. 🤔
No they'll still build an estate of stupidly expensive houses with two "affordable" plots so they can get planning permission
I recently saw a dead badger that had been hit by a car. There were bits of plastic bodywork around the scene. Which does beggar the question of why so many "hit" badgers have no bits of car strewn around them.
Councils don't lift them from the road side.
why so many “hit” badgers have no bits of car strewn around them
and die neatly right in the gutter, too. I think there's a suicide cult round here
Toad and ratty are devastated about the news.
you see, for all the arguing, and echo chambering, this is why I keep coming back.
It was the snake wot did it
Sounds like a case for Captain Beaky and his band.
What tyres for running over a badger?
What tyres for running over a badger?
Something with a solid central stripe.
"Councils don't lift them from the roadside" Yes they do. Highways Agency and Councils will remove road kill carcasses for driver safety. Otherwise you would see far more decaying carcasses, bone and hide, for months. Saw them regularly on our commute in rural Cambridgeshire (badger, deer, fox, hares). Your local Coucil will also remove any dead animal for health / disease reasons. Usually they have a reporting tool, e.g. report a dead animal
Back to the OP. two in the same place is most likely road kill.
Old neighbor of mine was an old school estate management chap. He would definitely echo the above views of badgers trapped and killed and then dumped by the roadside under cover of darkness to avoid any questions concerning animal welfare. Wild animals, that could not be commercialised, living on the land were viewed as an inconvenience.
Cycled past a handful of individual dead badgers up in the South Downs lanes over the last five years, serious stench, should be tested as a cure for no smell after Covid!
My word association for the title was: "In the bagging area".
Cycled past a handful of individual dead badgers up in the South Downs lanes over the last five years
Did any of the deaths appear unexplained or suspicious?
Cookeaa
He'd have a young, streetwise fast talking vixen sidekick who he openly loathes, but deep down he knows she's excellent and wants her to take over the reins when retires.
They probably fell into a pothole in the dark.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-64274298
Something is afoot/underbelly could be retaliation hit?
Did any of the deaths appear unexplained or suspicious?
With the stench, I don't hang around to check, rotting badger in middle of summer is vile!
Evolution hasn't been kind to badgers especially when such a shy animal's camouflage is only effective when lying in the middle of the road.
I'm pretty sceptical that people killing badgers then dumping them on the road to hide their crimes is widespread. I'm not saying it's never happened but I doubt it's common. I don't doubt that farmers (and others) illegally kill them, but I strongly suspect they leave them to quietly rot in a fox earth, woodland undergrowth or slurry pit rather than go to the effort and risk of moving them to a public place (roadside) where a. They might be seen and b. It would be pretty easy to establish they'd been killed illegally and not by a vehicle.
The reason there is badger roadkill everywhere is that there are LOTS of them (UK population doubled since the 1980s) and their road sense isn't great. Where I live in rural South Shropshire I can almost guarantee I'll see 2 or 3 shuffling across the road if I drive anywhere after dark on the narrow lanes by me. Both me and Mrs Bloke have (much to our distress) accidentally killed one when they've run out in front of us. We are lucky to have a huge population of red kites round here and I reckon their diet is 80% roadkill badger.
What tyres for running over a badger?
From personal experience Continental Double Fighters will roll over a Badgers head just fine.
After that I purchased some lights so I could see where I was going.
