A Marlow woman has criticised the RSPCA for taking more than 30 hours to respond to a wounded badger in a snare, amid fears the traps could kill family pets.

Janet Berger was walking her dog in the woods near Marlow Common with her three daughters and a friend, when she came across the creature trapped and struggling to free itself, with flies buzzing around the wound on its neck.

She cut it free from brambles using her daughter’s nail scissors and gave it a drink of water, but was unable to free it from the snare, calling the RSPCA to see if someone could come out and help.

It took a further 37 hours before she received a message from the animal rescue charity, who misinterpreted the location.

Ms Berger now says she is worried that people’s pets could get tangled up in the traps.

She said: “I tried to call them back and sent them a whole load of pictures of maps, but I’d given them all the details within an hour of finding it so I was surprised that they hadn’t already gone to find it.

“It would have been two days later if they did go, and by then I assume the owners of the snare would have “dealt with” the badger.

“These snares are totally indiscriminate so a dog or cat could just as easily get caught up.”

The badger was found near the Common between Heath Wood and Homefield Wood, which is owned by the Government’s Forestry Commission (FC), responsible for protecting woodland areas.

A spokesman said: “The use of snares on the FC estate, including leasehold land, is strictly prohibited.

“The situation at Heath Wood is thought to have been from snares being used on adjacent land not owned or managed by the Forestry Commission.”

This was echoed by Thames Valley Police’s wildlife crime officer, Dean Kingham, who said it was likely the badger had been snared elsewhere and had managed to drag itself across to the woods.

He said snares are used in woodland areas where pheasant shooting is common.

Ms Berger said she regretted not calling wildlife hospital Tiggywinkles in Haddenham instead.

A spokesman from the RSPCA said: “RSPCA officers visited the location twice to try and find the injured badger, but unfortunately could not see any trace of the animal on either occasion.

“We are extremely grateful to the member of public who reported the injured badger to us, and we remain concerned at suggestions there could be more snares in the locality that could harm animals.

“We always try and respond to calls as soon as we can, but we do have to prioritise our work due to the sheer volume of calls we receive.”

A campaign fronted by conservationist and TV personality Bill Oddie against the use of snares can be found here.