Dept of Ag and NPWS or third party?

foxy farmer

Right lads what's yer take on this?
An elderly farmer (cousin of mine) has a small farm. His neighbour a retired garda has a dog that goes missing. Farm is searched and dog is found caught but ok in a snare after a day. Retired garda proceeds to scare farmer by insisting that snare was set by travellers from city for catching rabbits for dog sports up in Corks Northside. He then gets his family to search farm and 8 more snares are found and removed. They all seem professionally made and not designed to kill.
Retired garda proceeds to scare farmer more by saying that reprisals have been heard of for removing snares eg. Setting fire to farmhouse or intimidation.
Now after hearing this from his sister yesterday a thought occurs to me. A neighbouring large dairy farmer had bad TB breakdown last year i think. My elderly cousin had received a letter from Dept of Ag about this and requesting permission for NPWS to enter his farm in search for badgers. As far as I know he never replied.
Would they come in regardless and snares be set anyway? Would they get nosy if they find the snares gone?
The retired garda is falling over my cousin with kindness in last no. of years and now has him scared s**tless thinking about travellers and what they might do.

joejobrien

In my experience The Dep. of agri always visited neighbouring farmers seeking premission when they were preparing to snare. I have no experience of recieving a letter of request. They are always been courteous and I would think they wouldnt set traps on land s without seeking prior premission. Generally if a complaint is sent into DVO they remove traps almost immediately. There traps are professionally built, unsure what other communities my use
imo your nieghbour maybe a step too close:(

Nekarsulm

The Dept. ask if you are agreeable to snares being set. Nothing on paper, as far as I know. Once you give verbal permission, the Department's official/ wildlife ranger will come and go onto your land without any further notification to you, the landowner. They will not ring/text to let you know they are about checking snares.

Worth your Uncle's while to contact the DVO covering his area and ask to speak to someone in the Reactor section. Explain the situation and ask to be called back with confirmation or otherwise of snaring in operation.

Buford T. Justice XIX

I don't think the NPWS will enter a farm to set snares without seeking the farmers permission or at the very least informing him they are seeking permission to set them.

I have a Dept man in every 2 years or so looking to know if any new badger setts are visible. I told him of any new ones but don't think he set any snares or took samples.

No TB issues here, thankfully, but one of a neighbours out-farms bounding mine so will have problems like that going forward.

Kovu

I received & sent back a letter last week allowing permission.

So I can expect snares? It's an out farm of land so not worried about it too much.

td5man

You usually get a visit from the department to see where the setts are then someone comes and sets snares was 6 months later in our case.
Nothing in writing afaik.

foxy farmer

I'm almost certain he got letter about NPWS setting snares. Will check it out. Definitely had some contact with officaldom about it. Personally I think it was them who set snares. There was a man in another area who had a bad breakdown a few years and within a week of the snares being set in nearby forestry they disappeared. Each time they were replaced they were removed soon after.

Kovu

I forget what our letter said now but had to sign it and send it back giving permission to cull them.

Then again, one of the adjoining farms to our land there has gone down with tb two years running so maybe that has something to do with it.

td5man

Farm relief snared them in our area afaik.
28 badgers culled 80% of them had tb, lost 52 milkers to tb that year,

mallethead

Neighbour of mine had an outbreak
i recieved a letter and a Department's official/ wildlife ranger rang me asked me a few questions about where i thought badgers were
As far as i knew he was going to shoot any he found

Buford T. Justice XIX

There was a neighbour with a very bad breakdown a few years ago. He was storing ration in a shed with no doors.

Turns out badgers were coming into the yard at night and eating ration and crapping on the feed which he fed to cattle the next day.

He has doors up now though.

Birdnuts

mallethead wrote: »

Neighbour of mine had an outbreak
i recieved a letter and a Department's official/ wildlife ranger rang me asked me a few questions about where i thought badgers were
As far as i knew he was going to shoot any he found

Standard proceedure is for Badgers to be snared and then shot under special licence by Department approved persons.

joejobrien

Birdnuts wrote: »

Standard proceedure is for Badgers to be snared and then shot under special licence by Department approved persons.

That is correct. They do not woander aimless expectin to shoot anything.
It is the FRS that is contracted in our area. They inspect the area for active setts before a snare is ever laid.
Have had them on an annual basis . Thankful to see them;)

freedominacup

td5man wrote: »

Farm relief snared them in our area afaik.
28 badgers culled 80% of them had tb, lost 52 milkers to tb that year,

Did they keep going until they had them all cleaned out?

Base price

Birdnuts wrote: »

Standard proceedure is for Badgers to be snared and then shot under special licence by Department approved persons.

A friend works on contract for the Dept snaring badgers. He was telling me that after they clear an area and new badgers repopulate it, they live trap the new badgers for testing. If clear they release them back where they came from.

td5man

freedominacup wrote: »

Did they keep going until they had them all cleaned out?

Yeah , very clean tests for a few years after.

td5man

Base price wrote: »

A friend works on contract for the Dept snaring badgers. He was telling me that after they clear an area and new badgers repopulate it, they live trap the new badgers for testing. If clear they release them back where they came from.

That the problem with removing the old ones, the new ones can bring disease from another area.
The department caught a few a couple of years after the first lot must have been to test them.

Nekarsulm

Funny enough, the Dept. told me that snared animals were no longer tested in out area, due to (A) The cost of PM and lab tests, and
(B) More than 60% were testing positive anyway in the wider area.

Greengrass1

We had a clear out here in november.
Big tb problem in the area one man a farm away lost 20 cows as well as young stock.
Dept man came around september time and walked our farm to find sets.
He came back then mid November with the lad who was contracted to trap them from FRS.
Got 8 here and 14 in the area.
No formal agreement between us just verbal.
Your man that was trapping was nice would stop and talk and tell us what he got