'Horrified' dog-walker finds freshly-skinned badger

A dog-walker was “horrified” after finding the skin of a decapitated badger.

Phillip Williams, 54, made the “gruesome” discovery while walking his dog near the Van Hague Garden Centre in Chorleywood, on Wednesday.

There no was carcass but Mr Williams said the animal had been "perfectly skinned". 

He said: “I was horrified; I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. I walked past it at first and then I thought to myself, no, that’s not right, so I headed back and took a closer inspection.

“I thought to myself, who would do such a thing? The poor thing had had its head and feet chopped off, but there was no blood anywhere.

“Whoever did it, had done an expert job – they had obviously done this before.

The badger's skin was found in Chorleywood

“It was so fresh too; that’s what startled me. I swear it must have just been done because there was no holes in the skin; the badgers and buzzards hadn’t gotten to it – makes me think the killers were probably watching me when I found it.”

Mr Williams immediately contacted a badger trust, where an employee informed him that badger killers routinely decapitate the animal and feed the carcasses to their dogs.

He said after researching the topic online, he found that while it is rare to make such a discovery, it is not entirely unheard of.

He said: “I noticed it’s happened in Scotland and Essex and according to the badger trust, there’s been a few incidences of it around here recently too.

“It’s a pretty disgusting thing to do and seems fairly pointless to me.”

Hertfordshire Constabulary has been contacted for a comment.