Badgers

I read with interest Charles Clover’s article in The Sunday Times about badgers (24th April).  Mr Clover argues that “badgers are plentiful, overprotected and play a significant part in spreading disease among cattle” and should be culled.  But there are some aspects of badgers in the countryside which he failed to mention.
    Last year in the middle of the night my sleep was disturbed by a tremendous fuss outside my bedroom window. In the moonlight I saw two badgers fighting. They were locked together, rolling backwards and forwards in the driveway, emitting blood curdling screams and screeches. I was pleased to be indoors and at least 15 feet away as their size, strength and  ferocity were truly frightening.
    This year foraging badgers have rotavated our driveway edges so that the grass has disappeared and the verges look like a ploughed field.
    There are so many badgers on the roads at night that they present a clear risk of damaging motor vehicles.
    Those that have become road-kill smell. No, stink. The regular clearer-uppers of dead things seem not to touch a badger until it is well into its decomposing process.
    In discussion with local heritage experts I learn that nearly any wildlife species can be turned into food – jugged hare, pigeon pie or rabbit  stew. No one can ever remember being hungry enough to eat a badger – or even badger-flavoured crisps.