Longfield

I had to work on Saturday night starting at 23:30 and going on until the early hours of Sunday. I had only driven about 400 yards from home and there in the road was a badger that had been hit. Remembering that a friend of mine who is involved with marine mammal rescue told me that it is usually the second collision that kills a badger, as the first is usually not fatal having strong skulls they just get knocked out. I turned my car around and parked up to ensure that no overtaking traffic could run the poor animal over. The badger was still breathing and looked like a male, there was a fair amount of blood around its mouth. I couldn't tell how alert it was and not wanting to get bitten I gently gave it a prod with a shovel that I had in my boot and it didn't react. I then picked it up by the fore and hindlegs and laid it on the verge of the road out of harms way. There was still warmth coming from its body, the collision could only have just happened a few minutes before I came by. I had to then get to work but I decided to check on the badger when I returned home. At 02:30 it was still where I had left it, still breathing and its front legs kept on jerking, it appeared to me to be in a state of shock. To be honest I didn't know what to do, should I bring it home and leave in the garden covered in straw and an old blanket for warmth and trust to luck. I was tired and not thinking straight, it then dawned on me, the latest newsletter from the North West Kent badger group was still in the kitchen and the back page had contact numbers for just such an occasion. Back at home I rang the RSPCA and provided them with the details of where the badger was, I said that I would return to the animal and wait for a van to appear to pick up the badger. With torch in hand I returned to the badger and waited, hearing the laboured breathing and snuffling of the poor animal in the dark from the other side of the road. Whilst I waited, little and tawny owls were calling in the distance, robins were singing and two foxes calmly trotted along the road toward me only realising that there was something odd (me) lurking in the gloom when they were within 15 feet and then quickly scurrying away. Whilst I was waiting I checked where I thought the badger had come from and where it might have been going and I could see that there was a well worn path in the hedges on either side of the road. After an hour the RSPCA appeared and the badger was placed in a basket and taken away more or less in the same shocked state. I got back home, around 04:15, cold and very tired but relieved to feel that I had done the best I could.

I guess the badger was destined to be put to sleep, old Brock just couldn't compete with a ton of car probably travelling too fast and maybe being driven by people that just didn't care.

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