Can you eat badgers

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Accessibility Links Skip to content. Menu Close. One of his favourite snacks is a badger sandwich. He said: 'I'm against the cull - but it would be ridiculous not to use the dead badgers. Badger makes a pretty good meal. As with all meat you just make sure you cook it long and hot enough to kill any bugs. Mr Boyt from Davidstow, Cornwall, doesn't agree with the shooting of badgers but sees no point in their meat going to waste. Though Mr Boyt sees no issue in eating dead animals, he does not kill them himself but rather picks them up from the side of the road after they have been run over on roads around his home in Bodmin Moor, Cornwall.

His long-suffering wide, Sue Boyt, 59, does not share his taste in meat however as she is a vegetarian. Mr Boyt collects the animals with a shovel, skins them and cuts the meat into joints, often making them into a stew or sandwich. His diet regularly includes fox, hare, sparrow, deer, pigeon and even a porcupine he brought back from a holiday in Canada.

The unusual way of dining isn't fattening either, as despite eating three meals a day Mr Boyt weighs just over nine stone. He said: 'People are happy to eat an apple which has fallen out of the tree - so what's the difference? Just because it hasn't got a label on doesn't mean it's not edible. Mr Boyt's eating habits began when he was 13, after he discovered a dead pheasant in a park. Stop the cull: Protestors in the Somerset village of Monksilver patrol fields in a bid to prevent culling.

Since it has been illegal to kill badgers in Britain, but there is no law which deems it illegal to eat them once they are already dead.

The badger cull has divided opinion in Somerset where shooting began on Monday. It is expected that 5, of the species will be killed in the cull.

Plans for a second shoot in Gloucestershire have been put on hold. Protestors have been monitoring setts and patrolling their communities at nightfall to prevent the cull which is intended to stop badgers infecting cattle with tuberculosis.

European recipes for badger often ask you to lay it in running water for several days to get rid of a rank flavour. But Boyt says that's only necessary for fox. And badger, though it doesn't need to be hung, can be eaten when it's "quite green" - that's assuming the diners aren't similarly tinged.

Eating badger: a sett menu. The suggestion that culled badgers ought to be eaten is causing a bit of a stir, but is it so terrible an idea? It certainly has historical precedent, says Alex Renton. Roadkill expert Arthur Boyt at home with a dead badger. Photograph: Alamy. Reuse this content. They are said to taste much like pork, but travelers say that bear meat provides a closer comparison.

If you find a dead animal on the road, pavement, or in another open public space, you should tell your local council. This includes domestic pets and wild animals like badgers and foxes. A dead animal found on private property should be reported to the owner of the land. Because badgers are moving around more, we are seeing more casualties on the side of the road.