‘It’s horrific’: one man’s encounter with snared badger

Daniel Downey was out for a walk on a sunny Monday, May 5, when he came across a badger caught in a snare. The snare was attached to a fence post in a break in the hedge.

It appears the snare was set by the Department to either cull or vaccinate the animal, however the Department has neither confirmed nor denied this.

Daniel describes the animal as “completely panicked” and in “absolute pain”.

“You could do an okay sign with your hand and that’s how tight the snare was around its waist.”

The Cavan native described the metal wire trap as “strangling” the badger’s midriff.

“It looked like a 19th Century corset cutting into its waist. And I’m sure that even if the badger had been rescued, there probably would have been severe internal haemorrhaging, it was that tight.”

Daniel managed to find a contact for the landowner, who when alerted arrived very quickly.

Daniel reports the farmer was “very angry” with the Department’s lack of supervision of their snare which they refer to as “stopped body restraints”.

“Equally he was very worried about the possibility of badgers spreading TB - that it was endemic in the area, that it was rife.”

The Celt contacted the Department in the weeks after the incident and included the specific location. We asked a series of questions including for the time the Department arrived, whether the badger euthanised and if it had bovine TB? Despite repeated requests, the Department did not respond.

Daniel referred to a Journal.ie report that detailed how Scotland does not cull badgers, yet has a TB-free status recognised by the EU and suggests Ireland pursues a similar course of action.

“From a human point of view it was horrific to see, but from the badger’s point of view - I mean, what a horrible way to die. It’s horrific,” says Daniel.

“There’s no telling how long it had been there.

“And there’s no telling how long it could have been there if they are checking the traps every day - that would just be sitting there from seven in the evening to the next morning.”