The Government’s hunting consultation gives us a real chance to protect badgers

The hunting consultation is a pivotal moment to protect not only those animals mercilessly chased and killed by hounds but the other victim of hunting, the badger. 

I’m Emily, Campaigns Manager at the League, but in my spare time I am a committee member of Oxfordshire Badger Group and member of the Three Counties Hunt Saboteurs. I have been active in both groups for over 10 years so have first-hand experience of seeing the devastation and continued persecution of badgers and their setts throughout the year. 

In March this year, on a day where the hunt was meeting, I discovered one of the worst blocked setts I have ever seen in the neighbouring field to where the hunt was. A huge badger sett spanning a large bank with every hole, about 10 of them, filled with heavy clay. It was heartbreaking. The police did visit and spoke to the landowner. I can’t say if any badgers survived, but I fear not. 

At no other time of the year do you see such an increase of sett blocking than during the hunting season, from November to March.  

Who blocks badger setts? 

Individuals, often terrier men, will be out early in the morning prior to a hunt meet, blocking up badger setts to ensure their hunting day won’t be ruined by foxes using them to get away. 

It is illegal to dig down into a badger sett to retrieve a fox but, as we have seen multiple times, “digging out” continues. The disgusting, disturbing footage of a fox being dug out and thrown to waiting hounds by the Avon Vale hunt was seen by us all in 2023. More recently, sickening footage captured by the Lake District Hunt Saboteurs emerged of the Coniston Foxhounds appearing to dig out a fox before throwing it to the hounds.   

When the public or the police aren’t watching this is the reality of hunting with hounds. This goes on behind our backs, and they think they can get away with it.  

Sally Jones, Groups Manager at the Badger Trust, deals with this daily in work and in her free time. This is her experience in her own words:  

“As both the Badger Trust’s Groups Manager and Chair of Northamptonshire Badger Group, protecting badgers isn’t something I switch off at the end of the working day. It’s a constant thread running through my life. But it’s out in the field, at setts during the hunting season, where the reality of that protection is most clear. 

Year after year, I return to the same setts, getting to know them, their well-used paths, fresh digging, bedding at the entrances and eager for signs of cubs. These are not just holes in the ground; they are homes, used by generations of badgers who have sculpted the landscape over time. 

That’s why finding a blocked sett never gets easier. 

This is happening regularly. I hear time and again from badger groups across England and Wales facing the same issue, the same patterns of blocking, the same frustration, and the same emotional toll. 

Blocking a badger sett is a criminal offence under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992. Yet sett blocking remains one of the most widespread forms of badger persecution linked to hunting. Sett entrances are deliberately filled, usually with soil and clumps of turf, often showing clear spade marks, although rocks and logs are also used, trapping badgers underground. In many cases, setts are also dug out to retrieve a fox or a terrier dog is sent in to flush a fox out, again all illegal!" 

Can badgers escape from a blocked sett? 

While badgers are powerful diggers, they cannot always dig their way out. Their ability to escape depends on what has been used to block the sett, as well as soil type, compaction, and tunnel depth. Underground, in tight tunnels, badgers do not always have the space or leverage to move large amounts of material. Blocking also restricts airflow, reducing oxygen. Early in the year, with dependent cubs below ground, the consequences can be devastating. 

If ‘trail hunting is real, why do hunts block setts? 

Hunts often claim to be following legal “trail hunting”, but genuine trail laying would not require blocking badger setts.  

Why are setts still being blocked, in the exact locations and at the same time hunts are operating, and during the exact months of the fox hunting season? 

During this time, sett checking is relentless, with early mornings and long days. When blocking is found, it is recorded and reported to the police, local wildlife crime officers and Badger Trust, and we ensure badgers can get out and air can get in. This work is vital but emotionally draining and incredibly frustrating given the laws that already exist around fox hunting and sett blocking. 

Sett blocking is illegal. It is happening. It needs to stop. 

Badgers are an iconic British species, part of our landscapes for over 250,000 years, and they deserve to live safely in their homes, free from persecution, disruption and harm.”