Posting the latest Badger Trust Group Update here. Lots of interesting and informative news here and, as always, it's well worth a read.
Dear Badger Group Member
Welcome to your latest edition of Group eNews. We have lots to share with you including:
Walk for Wildlife Update
Why report Badger Crime?
Groups Spotlight
Badger Watch App Launch
News
Dates for your diary
Walk for Wildlife 2 Postponed until Spring 2023 Sadly the Walk for Wildlife, scheduled for Sunday 27th November has been postponed due to ongoing issues with transport and travel arrangements. The walk had already been moved from Saturday to Sunday in order to take into account rail strikes. However, it is apparent that there were too many issues for people to access London in an easy and cost-effective way. Video announcement from Chris Packham on Twitter > We are pleased to have supported and been involved in the planning of this walk from the outset and were looking forward to greeting badger protectors, group members, and supporters at our muster point, to walk together as one big badger army. We wholeheartedly believe in the need to stand up for nature and we remain committed to helping this walk take place in Spring 2023. Whilst this might feel far away, it'll come around really fast, and it gives us all time to build momentum and support, plus we now have more time to design our badger costumes and banners! In the meantime, if you have any planned events, don't forget we have a fabulous free badger face mask for you to download >
Why report badger crime?
Badgers have been a UK Wildlife Crime Priority since 2009, due to sheer persecution as opposed to conservation. Currently, there is no requirement from the Home Office for police forces to record offences in relation to most wildlife crimes. Therefore as there is no obligation for police forces to record crimes against wildlife, whilst they may investigate suspected badger crime offences, these figures are not captured when looking at the 'Incident data'. This shows why the figures are not accurate at all and why we see a very small percentage. Importance of incident data Whilst assessing wildlife crime priorities is a complex process, it’s ultimately the incident data that is used, and that currently is the number of incidents reported to Badger Trust, not the number reported to the police. The incident data is used to access the national wildlife crime priorities, and if the figures are not high, or we see a reduction, then it is possible that we might see badgers drop off the national priority status. That would certainly make it even harder to hold police forces to account. Badger Trust data reports into the Wildlife Crime Priorities This is why it’s so important that all incidents are reported to Badger Trust after reporting to the police. We need to ensure they are captured in the statistics and that badgers remain on the wildlife crime priority list. It is Badger Trust that helps show the true picture of badger crime, rather than that which police statistics show. From conversations with groups, it is apparent that Badger Trust is only receiving potentially around 10% of the incidents. Our simple plea is to please report all suspected crime incidents to Badger Trust as well as the police or RSPCA. We understand your frustration when it seems, at times, that there is little action being taken. But reporting is the way to ensure badger crime remains a wildlife crime priority and gives leverage to prove it is a serious issue. If there are few reports, then it only makes badger crimes appear a less serious problem, and we certainly know that is not the case. Thank you, Craig Fellowes. Use the simple crime reporting form on our website >
Groups Spotlight We want to give a huge shout-out to the groups who have reported the most crimes to us via the Reporting Centre on our Badger Trust website. *Somerset* *Gloucestershire* *Northamptonshire* *Essex Badger Protection* We want to say a massive THANK YOU and recognise your ongoing dedication to reporting badger crime. We rely on your reports to keep track of incidents and to ensure police forces are provided with the correct information. The statistics also feed into our reporting and training for police forces. Ultimately your reports to Badger Trust help keep badger crime a wildlife crime priority. We must keep it that way!
Badger Watch App Launch
Launching 29th November We are pleased to announce that the Badger Watch app will be launching later this month at the same time as the annual Wildlife Crime Report. It has been designed to guide users through a step-by-step process to Recognise, Record and Report badger persecution. It's filled with helpful information on the law and what to do when witnessing badger crime. Reporting badger crime is vital for securing prosecutions and for monitoring national rates of badger persecution. We are asking groups to please give us feedback about your user experience or any niggles when using the app. Please complete this short form with your feedback >
NEWS
Local extinction of badgers moves closer as badger cull heads for record badger deaths.
Another 11 cull zones were added to England, covering a land mass almost double the size of London, as the cull intensifies. Read the press release >
Our press release was also picked up by various press outlets nationally and regionally includingthis one in the Vet Times >
Insights from the Badger Trust-sponsored 33rd Annual Wildlife Crime Conference
Badger Trust's Campaigns and Research Manager, Jes Hooper, meets UK police tackling badger crime. Read the full story >
The Badgers of Wytham Woods Book Discount Code
We have kindly been given a discount code for the new book from David Macdonald and Chris Newman, The Badgers of Wytham Woods: A Model for Behaviour, Ecology, and Evolution. Use code ASPROMP8 in the shopping cart screen to deduct 30%. Purchases must be made direct from the OUP website.
Dates for your Diary! Badger Watch App Training Rescheduled for Tuesday, 22nd November at 7pm. Learn all about the new app, how to use it, and share it with your members.
Meet the app developers and designers.
Opportunity for questions.
Please join us to learn how the app can be an important tool for us all to fight badger crime.
Book Now via Eventbrite > Groups Quarterly Meeting Wednesday, 7 December 19:00-21:00 The final Groups meeting of the year will cover:
Badger Trust Update (Cull 2022, Campaigns, Working Groups, Crime).
Groups Survey Summary and actions (Regional Meetings, Communication, Resources).
Member Recruitment Ideas and Discussion (Please email groups@badgertrust.org.uk if you want to add to this, or have successful ideas to help other groups which we can include)
Looking ahead to 2023 and Question time. Book your place now >
Coming up next month
Aside from the impending arrival of Christmas, we are busily preparing for next year and our December e-newsletter will give an overview of the Groups Survey Summary, which is being discussed in more detail at the GQM on 7th December, so don't miss that.
If you have any questions about any of the information in the newsletters or just want to chat about your group and badgers, please do contact us!
Whatever you're up to for badgers, we'd like to hear about it! Let us know via groups@badgertrust.org.uk and we can profile your wonderful work nationally.
Sally
Groups Coordinator

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