DINSDALE!
Posted on 06/18/2009 2:39:52 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Aberdeenshire, Scotland (BANG) - One of Britain's Queen Elizabeth's gamekeepers has been fined over a dead badger. Robbie Elliot, 45, admitted failing to check a fox snare at least once a day at Birkhall, which is part of the Balmoral estate in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and was fined ?450 [$730] at Stonehaven Sheriff Court.
A man had discovered the badger in a fox snare - known as a midden - on April 27 last year and found it was still there on May 4.
When police were alerted and checked the area the following week, it had been removed but a badger corpse was later found in the area.
The gamekeeper - who has over 20 years of experience - told police he was aware of a badger being caught in the snare about a month previously, was aware they should have been checked daily but "could not provide any explanation" as to why they hadn't been checked.
Elliot admitted committing the offense under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 between April 27 and May 4 last year but denied a second charge of failing to check a snare, which was accepted by the court.
His solicitor said his client believed he had lifted the snares - which are set between October and March - but accepted he "must have missed this snare which trapped the badger" and claimed Elliot's wife leaving him and the death of the head gamekeeper last April had had a significant effect on him.
He called for the court to impose a lenient sentence as anything severe - including a fine - could see his client have his general license restricted, preventing him for carrying out his duties.
Sheriff Patrick Davies said he could not admonish Elliot but hoped he could obtain a license which would not have too severe an impact.
He added: "I must seek to punish you appropriately and I must also seek to deter others from falling into human error such as your own."
A spokeswoman for the Balmoral Estate said they take wildlife offenses "very seriously" and that Elliot, who was previously suspended over the incident, will be subject to another internal disciplinary procedure.
I guess it ain’t so good to be the Queen.
DINSDALE!
We do not have any badgers. Would you like a wolverine instead?
LOL! For some ghastly reason I never get tired of that stupid thing....
I believe the Trojan Rabbit comes before the badger..."it's very nicea"
Oh you beat me to it!!!!!!!!!!!!
My brother had a pet badger that he called BeBe, and she was the cutest thing you ever saw. A car ran over the mother badger while she was carrying the baby badger across the road, and a friend brought the baby badger to my brother.
He raised the baby badger on a toy baby bottle. It did great but did not know it was a badger. Could never house break her, but she would come out of her den whenever my brother called her (she knew her name) and would dance a jig each time, because she new he was going to feed her and pet her.
She loved hot smoked sausage sticks, she would hold them in her front paws and devour them.
You could not believer the size of her claws.
The pet badger (BeBe) was stolen. We are sure of who stole it, but cannot prove it.
My brother was crushed over the loss of BeBe, how can you replace a pet badger?
That story sounds like the lyrics of some bizarre blues tune.
Since my badger left me
I found a new place to dwell
Down at the end of weasel street
at the dead mink hotel
(make the giant spork weasel go away... I’m skeert.)
Now THAT would be a scary happening. One badger is more than enough to throw me into cardiac arrest. Those suckers are mean and evil to the core.
You’re not trickin’ me into clicking on that one! (Dang! It’s ALREADY in my head d@mn you, LOL!)
As a matter of fact, I would! Send him right over! Yummy!
LOL
I'm sorry. He's like peanuts to me; one is NEVER enough! :)
\OK. That's my "Hugh trifecta." I'm done. For now...
Kitty doesn’t look too pleased about the situation either.
"Badgers? We don't need no steenking badgers!"
Did the badger say he was expecting someone taller?
“I will not buy this record — it is scratched.”
“Queen Elizabeth’s Gamekeeper Fined Over a Dead Badger”
You know, you could catch 0bama in bed with a live boy or a dead badger...and the MEDIA wouldn’t say a word, LOL!
That must be a regional use of the word midden; I have only seen it used before to refer to a pile of garbage, and never to a snare.
I’m blocked from youtube. Is it a clip of Trinidad in UHF?
“This is an ex-badger!”
You know, you could catch 0bama in bed with a live boy or a dead badger...and the MEDIA wouldn’t say a word, LOL!
(laugh) You've got that right, Diana...
yeah!
"Badgers?"
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