The enthusiastic historian and naturalist Michael Clegg travels the Yorkshire region meeting colourful characters, looking at interesting places and uncovering some off-beat jobs and trades. In this episode of Clegg’s People, Michael Clegg looks at the cruel “sport” of badger-baiting. He meets members of the West Yorkshire Badger Monitor, a volunteer network to guard badger setts. Title: Yorkshire Television Production Title: Clegg’s People The programme opens with views of a variety...

The enthusiastic historian and naturalist Michael Clegg travels the Yorkshire region meeting colourful characters, looking at interesting places and uncovering some off-beat jobs and trades. In this episode of Clegg’s People, Michael Clegg looks at the cruel “sport” of badger-baiting. He meets members of the West Yorkshire Badger Monitor, a volunteer network to guard badger setts. Title: Yorkshire Television Production Title: Clegg’s People The programme opens with views of a variety of wildflowers and plants, followed by the trunk and roots of a large tree growing from a hillside. Michael Clegg walks along an overgrown footpath towards the camera to introduce the programme. He describes the environment he’s walking through as a perfect home for the badger. The film shows a badger rooting around in debris at the base of a tree. Michael on camera speaks about the plight of the badger when it meets with man. Title: Amateur video A video clip shows dogs attacking a badger in a badger baiting pit. He says that it’s in Yorkshire’s woods that badgers have faced some of the worst persecution. From 1970 to 1985, their population dropped by two thirds. In 1979 the government’s Home Office gave West Yorkshire’s badger special protection, but the killing continued. More protection came in 1981 with the Wildlife and Countryside Act. However magistrates are hampered by the ability of offenders to pay the £2.000 pound fine Michael meets Bob Parnell a policeman who he describes as being in the front line of badger protection. Bob shows a badger’s sett that has been dug out by badger baiters. Bob describes the methods used to capture a badger. Title: Amateur Video Further footage of dogs attacking a badger. Title: Badger Monitor Photographs Still images show two men digging for badgers. Bob speaks of the barbarity of badger baiting and lengths perpetrators will go to pursue this form of gambling. The film shows a wall mounted notice which reads ‘Nature Conservancy Council – South West Yorkshire Office – 14 Bond Street. Michael walks into their offices in Wakefield. A group of mainly men meet around a table devising strategies to eradicate badger baiting. Those gathered represent the West Yorkshire Badger Monitor. Their backgrounds are naturalists, vets, RSPCA, countryside rangers, the Ministry of Agriculture, farmers, land owners and the West Yorkshire police. Speaking to the group is Inspector Vernon Clegg from Dewsbury. Michael explains that there are now 118 volunteers helping in the monitoring of badger setts across the region. The film goes on to show headlines from local newspapers which have covered stories about badger baiting. On camera Vernon Clegg talks to Michael and outlines the need of the police to work with the monitor as those involved with badger baiting can be dangerous and violent. On screen a mock-up of a sett survey form is shown. Michael says that three years before the monitor only 39 setts were identified now there are 236 with a population of nearly 600 badgers. On film a detailed diagram of a sett shows exits and entrances. In a local forest Michael meets David Gomersall, a founding member of the monitor. He’s been recording badger setts for 16years, some of that worked helped establish the monitor and now he works across West Yorkshire. He describes some of the setts he’s found and describes how badgers time is spent above ground mainly at night. Some views of a badgers just outside the entrance to their sett follows. At another woodland sett Michael meets pathologist Keith Bradbury. Michael holds some badger hair in his hand, a vital clue he says, in the hunt for the presence of badgers. Keith points out what the different colours of the samples Michael holds mean. Nearby, the film shows the entrance to a sett. Keith is asked to give a brief account of the home life of the badger. The film shows some badgers at rest underground. Another shows a badger rooting for its favourite food, the earthworm. Keith has in his hand a badger skull and he shows Michael the dental structure of the teeth which are typical of a carnivore, despite mainly eating small prey.. Michael then meets up with actor Richard Thorp a well-known character in the television series Emmerdale Farm, and a keen volunteer in the badger monitor. He was used to seeing badgers in his native Sussex but has managed to find a badger’s sett in a disused quarry near his home. Richard says there are some old mine workings in the same vicinity. Michael asks Richard how he got involved in badger protection, and he says he was unaware of badger baiting but has since become part of the network to keep a look out for suspicious activity in areas where badgers live. The film goes back to Vernon Clegg where Michael asks if the initiative in West Yorkshire is likely to create a national programme of badger protection. Inspector Clegg replies by saying there is already a group called the National Badger Federation which is working closely with protection groups around the country. Out in a forest Michael and David Gomersall walk through deep undergrowth, which has been disturbed by badgers creating a path. They find in the mud track the footprints of a badger and fox. They come to a sett entrance, where they choose to sit to on a hillside some yards away so the they can settle down to a badger watch. Michael asks David about the sett’s recent history although it is thought to be 100 years old. A view of one of the entrances is accompanied by Michael speaking of the long wait for badgers to appear. It isn’t until after a dusk that a badger appears, but then disappears again. Other footage shows a badger outside its sett in the twilight, followed by views of younger cubs. Michael then talks of the successes or otherwise of the badger monitors work over its first few years, the programme then finishes. Credits: Camera Steve Falvey Sound Lindsay Dodd Additional Photography Marianne Wilding Editing Sean O’Toole Dubbing Don Atkinson Production Assistant Catherine Mounsey Graphics Tony Sharpe Producer Marylyn Webb Director Geoff Hall Series Editor David Lowen Executive Producer Graham Ironside. © Yorkshire Television Ltd 1988 End credit: Yorkshire Television production