A NEW joint strategy has been launched in Northern Ireland to protect badgers and their setts.
The Ulster Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (USPCA) and the Northern Ireland Badger Group have teamed up for `Operation Brockwatch'.
The organisations have joined forces with concerned farmers and landowners to create an effective rural partnership whose objective is to stop badger diggers and baiters trespassing on farms with the intention of committing barbaric acts of cruelty on a protected species.
The latest available figures show that in 2015, there were 14 sett disturbances, 21 instances of badger baiting and six traps or snares found.
The Brockwatch project will initially run as a pilot at a number of sites which have experienced badger baiting on multiple occasions.
These badger setts, which have been identified as vulnerable, will be watched on a `round the clock' basis using modern technology.
Rebecca Miller, Chair of the NI Badger Group, said: "Those involved in these despicable activities creep about our countryside at will and attack the vulnerable badgers setts and their residents year after year despite the creatures and their homes being fully protected by law.
"The dogs they use suffer appalling injuries and are often discarded dead in a ditch when they are no longer `fit for purpose'," she said.
"They are a plague to both landowners and to the defenceless animals they target, and a dynamic approach is required to halt them. Our Brockwatch initiative will at least deter the perpetrators if not catch them in the criminal act".
Brendan Mullan, Chief Executive of the USPCA, said: "We are determined to make all premeditated animal cruelty which includes dog fighting and badger baiting, history and, together with our partners, we will ensure `Operation Brockwatch' plays its part in making this happen".
Superintendent Brian Kee, PSNI Lead for Rural and Wildlife Crime, asked "members of the public or landowners who suspect Badger Persecution or any other rural crime is being planned or taking place" to contact the PSNI.
