An investigation has been launched into the ‘barbaric’ poisoning of a badger in the village of Bembridge, which led to the animal being put to sleep. The poorly badger was found in the garden of a home in the Howgate Road/Egerton Road area on Sunday morning, which prompted a call to Friends of the Animals. With the displayed symptoms and the ‘known history’ of the area, it was suspected by attending volunteers that the badger had been poisoned. It was taken to Carisbrooke Vets where, sadly, it was confirmed that the animal had been poisoned. It was put to sleep as a result. The matter has been reported to Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary as a wildlife crime. The Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme (WIIS), which is part of Natural England, is also investigating. Graham Lee from Badger Trust Isle of Wight says:
“This is not the first time that a badger has been poisoned in this area. “Whether the poisoning is deliberate or not – badgers are a Protected Species. Any type of poison left outside is at risk of being eaten by all types of wildlife, and pets too. “It’s the 21st century, we should not feel the need to poison animals and cause them to suffer an excruciatingly painful death, it’s barbaric. We are meant to be a nation of animal lovers, yet I’ve met many people over the years who live on our beautiful countryside island and they dislike wildlife, it just staggers me.”
Helen Sinclair MBE, founder of Friends of the Animals, adds:
“The Carisbrooke Vets, Friends of the Animals, Edward Albert and Badger Trust IW worked hard to save this badger who had been poisoned but unfortunately we were all unsuccessful. The poor animal would have suffered dreadfully. “The charity abhors the use of poison under any circumstances. When ingested, it causes great pain and is frankly barbarous. There is also a serious danger of a human or animal becoming the non-intended victim.”
Residents living in the area of Howgate Road and Egerton Road are asked to be vigilant and to keep an eye on their pets for any signs of poisoning. If anyone locally knows who might be using this poison, Badger Trust Isle of Wight would be grateful for any information. You can contact them in confidence through their website – https://www.badgertrust-isleofwight.co.uk/.
Thank you to all who made the effort for this poor creature.
It is imperative that we find whoever did this. Not only wildlife but domestic pets may be at risk.
Very sad news, an innocent animal
R.I.P
What disgusting people there must be in Bembridge. Likely the ones who have a huge garden or grounds who despise anything that they can’t ‘control’ be it animal or human.
I know they will never be caught but hope they die an equally painful end.
“What disgusting people there must be in Bembridge”
Yup, Tory voters to a man.
That’s a tad sexist, is it not, Helen? Don’t any women vote Conservative in Bembridge? Perhaps you should have added a bigot alert trigger warning to your incisive observation.
Find the culprit (s) Give them some of the poison, disgusting excuses for humans. That poor badger didn’t do you any harm?
I hope you find the evil thing that did this?
The council are most likely to blame by using their heavily poisonous weed killer!
Right name.
Weed killer kills weeds, not animals. Totally different biological process.
You try ingesting weed killer, Karen, and see what happens to you! We are animals just like cats, dogs and badgers. The stuff the clowncil use is not good news.
so it’s ok to poison rats and other vermin but when it comes to badgers they rush them to the vets and call it barbaric?! mental.
It is a dilemma…. How far do you go? If we shouldn’t poison or kill any living creature what about bacteria (I’m obviously being facetious)? Seems to be all about perception/reputation, if people perceive something to be vermin it’s okay to ‘control’ it, unfortunately perception can be subjective.
Speciesism.
“Roger Scruton regards the emergence of the animal rights and anti-speciesism movement as “the strangest cultural shift within the liberal worldview”, because the idea of rights and responsibilities is distinctive to the human condition, and it makes no sense to spread them beyond our own species. Scruton argues that if animals have rights, then they also have duties, which animals would routinely violate, such as by breaking laws or killing other animals. He accuses anti-speciesism advocates of “pre-scientific” anthropomorphism, attributing traits to animals that are Beatrix Potter-like, where “only man is vile.” It is, he states, a fantasy, a world of escape.”
😀 interesting!
I totally agree, you are mental.
Does sound hypocritical doesn’t it? It does say though that they abhor any use of poison. Personally I think that ALL animals should be classed as a protected species. Same as all humans.
oh. I’ve got -18 votes so far. I agree it’s abhorable, actually. but I guess the majority of idiots on this site can’t see the point I’m making. either way I wish humans would put other humans first. vermin spread desease.
Wouldn’t expect any less from the Bembridge fraternity
Agree, worked in Bembridge a few years ago and never have I found a community so far up their own ar@e
Bloody stuff should be banned entirely. Speciesism disgusts me in any shape or form.
So you know what the poison was, then?
Poison that kills animals should be banned. Doesn’t matter what brand name it was!!
What was the poison then????
Out of date caviar
Wife’s cooking
If rats are a problem there is little choice but to use poison and badgers are capable of moving paving slabs to or concrete pipes to get at food under or in them, please tell me an alternative
The point is that poison has biomarkers so if you can establish the poison and its content and strength you can find out if it is amateur or professional and that will lead to who is in the area at the time using bait. Is it a so called professional or just someone who has had enough of the badger and bought bait from one of the many outlets on the island that sell it!
Professional pest controllers can’t afford to kill a non target animal as it will destroy their reputation! Think about it!!
Prospective Conservative mp Joe Robertson lives in Bembridge , probably him that done it
Before we dug up, walled-in and concreted over all the fields and habitat, badgers were quite a rare sight. Now they have nowhere to go except gardens. So who’s to blame?
We all know the group of people that have a history of doing this and have access to the poison. If the Tories had not cut services to the bone we would have the police and environment agency to investigate and prosecute. Instead we don’t.
Looks like someone put out some food laced with rat poison (anticoagulant rodenticide) but they did not use a proper bait station, which is totally irresponsible because of potential harm to other animals as happened in this case. The best way to control rats is to identify their food source and remove it.
It would be good if the type of poison was disclosed however I appreciate that this might hinder an investigation into the person using it. Clearly something had been baited for this badger to eat it. I would hope that in this day and age, we were against using poisons including slug pellets and turning to eco solutions I.e nematodes, animal safe traps etc.
Metaldehyde slug pellets were banned two years ago. Ferric phosphate slug pellets are now used widely and they pose little danger to wildlife and pets.
Check the gardens with recent turf movement or farms nearby nobody goes and kills badgers these days for fun and if they did they wouldnt be poisoning it
My dog was poisoned taken to the vets after collapsing and was on a drip all night. An nothing was followed up apart from lies