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Image: Eurasian badger (Meles meles).
Home » Eurasian badger (Meles meles) » Articles :
Article 3: Badger baiting in the old days
How badger baiting was carried out in the days when it was a form of public entertainment.
See also: Article 1: About badger baiting , Article 2: Badger baiting on video and Article 4: The badger, a poem about badger baiting
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Introduction | Baiting in the 19th century | Baiting in the early 20th century | Related Badger Pages
Badger baiting has always been a cruel practice, as the following descriptions of the 'sport' in days gone by will show.
Warning! If you are easily upset by descriptions of cruelty to animals, please do not read on.
[Image]
Badger baiting around 1810.
The Badger , written by Northamptonshire poet John Clare (1798 - 1864) shows that badger baiting was a form of public entertainment in the early 19th century. In fact, it had been so since medieval times. Badger baiting, along with cock fighting, bull baiting and the like, often took place in the back yards of taverns. These activities were organised to draw in the crowds and so increase the sales of beer. In some cases, the baited badger had its tail nailed to the ground; it was then baited until it died. Death came about either through injuries inflicted by the dogs, or because of gangrene in the tail.
Picture: Source unknown.
In some cases, dogs were used to 'draw' the badger from a box, a barrel or an artificial tunnel. Ernest Neal, writing in his first book on badgers published in 1948, described the sequence of events:
"A badger ... is placed in a barrel or box to which it is chained, and the locals bring their dogs to test them out on it. Betting is a usual sideline, and the owner of the badger often makes quite a haul from the owners of inexperienced dogs. The terriers are often badly mauled in the process and even killed, and the badger may suffer a lot of ill-treatment. At one time the badger's lower jaw was cut away to give the dogs more chance. There is nothing whatever to be said for badger-baiting."
H. Mortimer Batten, in his book The Badger Afield and Underground published in 1923, wrote on the subject as follows:
"An amusing anecdote is told in the locality of Hutton-le-Hole concerning a badger drawing test which took place some years ago, and which, as usual, smelt of beer and pigsties. The badger was in the ordinary type of of rectangle wooden box, and the owner of it offered bets of two to one that no dog present could get it out. With becoming bashfulness a ruddy-faced farm labourer, the owner of a long-bodied, long-haired sheep dog whelp stepped up and and accepted the bet. It goes without saying that the badger was not new to the game, and that his owner's confidence was the result of many similar meetings.
"The ground was cleared, and the farm labourer introduced his cur to the mouth of the hole, 'ticing' him on with befitting sounds. The cur was not interested, so the man got hold of him and shoved him down the hole, tail first. A howl from the dog signified that the badger had got a good grip, whereupon the youth let go, and the dog shot out of the artificial earth with the badger still fast to his hind-quarters! So the youth won his bet.
"To anyone conversant with the habits and history of this beast, he stands out as a rather pathetic figure; but little is to be gained by dwelling on this unhappy phase of his life. The badger is a friendly and lovable beast. That he is not usually pictured as such is because he is most generally seen under unhappy conditions - perhaps as a cornered and terrified victim, filled with suspicion at his surroundings, and dreading attack. Fortunately, the badger never realises that his case is hopeless. I have known a starving and broken-hearted beast, after days of captivity and misery, to fight as gamely for its life as when first taken from its home, and, so long as a badger lives, its tenacity never wavers no matter how dark the prospects."
Find out about The threats faced by the Eurasian badger .
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