Health and safety with wildlife is not a complex issue

 

I was asked how the health risks of checking on dead badgers and foxes was tackled.

Firstly, Zoe Webber is a very experienced animal rescuer and will examine any foxes that might fit the Fox deaths Project criteria in situ. Gloves and face mask are standard. 

With badgers the UK Health and Safety executive prohibit post mortems in establishments due to what it sees as the possibility of bovine TB (I am NOT going to go into that farce here). It is only when DEFRA (Department of Environment Farming and Rural Affairs) wants a post mortem that it is allowed and I am not going into a debate on why DEFRA are allowed to look for TB evidence and how they get it wrong but still continue. The regulation is in place to protect workers.

We have come up with a solution with any suspicious deaths involving outdoor PMs. 

We do know that there are people out there killing badgers "to order" for taxidermy. Taxidermists know this is going on and that is why when I asked about a highly unusual number of badger "road deaths" each week on a quiet stretch of road... I was no longer a member of that group.  Only one taxidermist has asked whether it was okay to stuff badgers and so I pointed out the health risks because the attitude seems to have been "Unlikely I'll get TB!" But taxidermy for financial gain seems to block out safety concerns.

For foxes we do know, as I have posted before, that there have been instances of avian flu -dead birds are a free meal and the fact that it was proven that some people were deliberately feeding infected birds to foxes is a great concern. The risk taken knowing that foxes are in urban areas is criminal.

Again, mask and gloves are used because that is standard. There has been no major outbreak of AIV in foxes but there are other things to be cautious over.

The best advice the Animal Plant Health Advisory gives is to wear disposable gloves and face mask to bag a dead animal and then place that, the face mask and gloves in a second bag.

Basically nothing dead is just grabbed un-gloved and shoved into the boot of a car!

The risks actually come with irresponsible feeders who try to hand feed (one already lost a finger doing that but no one learns) foxes ands badgers or coax them as close as possible and even -still- try to lure foxes into their kitchens and homes for photo opportunities and social media likes. Those people, supported by their friends on social media, have probably been responsible for foxes (and badgers) being killed.

Foxes and badgers are wild animals and they have to be wary of humans and keep their distance to survive. We have already had one news story of how a fox "bullied" a child to get food and that has probably already got pest controllers excited because there is good money in killing a "nuisance fox" -a fox made a "nuisance" BY feeders.

Just be happy to see foxes and badgers in your garden and let them stay in the garden. You are ignoring the advice then just remember the animal in question turns up dead because it was reported as a "nuisance" -that is on you.

We take every necessary precaution as naturalists and wildlife rescuers and the work done yields results and tells us more about foxes. Overfeeding and trying to habituate risk health issues for humans (and for the foxes and badgers).

Everyone needs to be sensible if we want to continue seeing foxes because just one incident of a fox biting a child because it is habituated and if there are 20 foxes in the area and causing no problems...that is set to become 20 dead foxes. Because one was over habituated.

Health and safety with wildlife is not a complex issue but certain people are.