Badger Persecution

All badgers in Scotland are protected by law, but they are sometimes still illegally targeted by those who see them as a pest or for the purposes of illegal animal fights. Reckless or intentional damage, destruction and interference to badger setts (including sett blocking) is an offence which may arise from unlicensed forestry, agricultural or construction works.

There were 16 offences relating to badger persecution recorded by Police Scotland in 2022-23, compared to 13 in 2021-22.
Figure 15: Badger offences recorded by Police Scotland 2018-19 to 2022-23.

As shown in Figure 15, there were 16 recorded offences relating to badger persecution recorded in 2022-23, close to the average of 14 offences per year over the previous four years. The majority (14 out of 16 offences) related to digging, damage and obstruction to sett.

Further detail: of badger persecution offences by year, offence type, police division and time of year is provided in Tables 37 and 38 of the Tables supporting document.