Badger Licences - Possession of Badgers, Skins, etc.

There is a general offence under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 for possession of a dead badger or a part of a dead badger, for example a badger-skin sporran.  However, a person is not guilty of this offence if he or she can show that the badger had not been killed illegally or that if they had purchased it from someone that they had no reason to believe that it had been killed illegally.

Licences are therefore not necessary for someone to possess a dead badger, but it will be up to that person to be able to demonstrate that it was not killed illegally should they be asked to do so by the police.