It is the skull of an adult badger with a clear bullet fracture .
Alarm bells rang and the tenant farmer, myself and PC Jez Walmsley the Wildlife Crime Officer at Malton were concerned. The land was keepered by David Stephen Welford of Whitegrounds near Malton.
In September 2010 a dead badger was just visible in an ancient badger sett at Menethorpe.
I went to look and pulled from the sett this adult sow badger.
She had a thin blue bruised snare line on her belly and a blooded face.
I took her for examination and x rays to Mike Jones , vet at Battleflatts, Stamford Bridge, York.
The x ray clearly shows a 2.2. bullet had killed her. She was shot at close range through the eye downwards to the throat.
This beautiful adult sow had been snared illegally and shot very close to her sett.
His excuse was she was too badly injured to survive and shot her. She had a bruise and at the post mortem this thin bruise was her only injury from the snare.
It is illegal to set a snare close to a badger sett, she was snared 12 metres from her home.
After months of the court process Welford eventually pleaded guilty and was fined £385 and £100 costs.
The life a badger is worth £385, shameful.
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