{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/badgers-act-1973-repealed-16101992/section-1",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/badgers-act-1973-repealed-16101992/section-1.json",
  "legislation": "ukpga/1973/57",
  "legislation_title": "Badgers Act 1973 (repealed 16.10.1992)",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/badgers-act-1973-repealed-16101992",
  "path": "section/1",
  "kind": "section",
  "number": "1",
  "heading": "Taking, injuring or killing of badgers.",
  "text": "(1) If, save as permitted by or under this Act, any person wilfully kills, injures or takes, or attempts to kill, injure or take, any badger, he shall be guilty of an offence.\n(1A) If, in any proceedings for an offence under subsection (1) above consisting of attempting to kill, injure or take a badger, there is evidence from which it could reasonably be concluded that at the material time the accused was attempting to kill, injure or take a badger, he shall be presumed to have been attempting to kill, injure or take a badger unless the contrary is shown.\n(2) If, save as permitted by or under this Act, any person has in his possession or under his control any dead badger or any part of, or anything derived from, a dead badger, he shall be guilty of an offence.\n(3) A person shall not be guilty of an offence under subsection (2) above if he shows that—\n(a) the badger had not been killed, or had been killed otherwise than in contravention of the provisions of this Act; or\n(b) the badger or other thing in his possession or control had been sold (whether to him or any other person) and, at the time of the purchase, the purchaser had had no reason to believe that the badger had been killed in contravention of those provisions.",
  "extent": "E+W+S",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F1",
      "text": "Word inserted by Wildlife and Countryside (Amendment) Act 1985 (c. 31, SIF 4:5), s. 1(1)(a)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F2",
      "text": "S. 1(A) inserted by Wildlife and Countryside (Amendment) Act 1985 (c. 31, SIF 4:5), s. 1(1)(b)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F3",
      "text": "S. 1(2)(3) substituted by Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (c. 69, SIF 4:5), Sch. 7 para. 8"
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1973/57/section/1",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T10:46:44.867505+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}