Betty's Party at DEFRA

I was so excited on Wednesday night that I just couldn't sleep.  You know how it is when you invite friends to a party and you are worried that no one will arrive?  I thought that my worst fear was realised when I arrived at DEFRA on Thursday morning and I was all alone except for all the Cubs who came with me.  The Police had arranged some fencing outside DEFRA to keep my friends under control.  Here I am being kept under control and feeling very alone...

If you look carefully, you can see my 3 Cubs on the left of the fence, and you can see ginger Bud in the middle.  That picture was taken by a lovely young Human called Joe. 

Then more Humen and Huwomen and Badgers began to arrive.   Here are some pictures:

 They brought lots of banners with them

Some of the Hupeople dressed up like Badgers

Some of them made lots of noise and used horns to make their voices louder.  One Human blew a whistle but I didn't like that much because it hurt my ears. I thought the Humans were singing but I was told it was called chanting and they said things like, "Mr Gove, Stop the Cull" and "NFU Shame on You" .

I was told that Mr Gove and DEFRA are in the pockets of the NFU- the National Farmers union- and Mr Gove "dances to their tune"!  I have a bit of difficulty with that concept as I just cannot picture Mr Gove and DEFRA dancing in  farmers' pockets, but I was told that this is a "Metaphor".  What people are saying is that the rich farmers of the NFU can influence Mr Gove and the Government because they give the Conservatory Government lots of money.  Mr Gove was at the NFU conference on the day before our little get-together, so it does make me think...  Oh and the new Huwoman who has just become the leader of the NFU  hates Badgers, so I am very worried about that. This is Minette Batters the new NFU Huwoman

She farms Cows and kills them for meat then blames Badgers when they get diseases. I must keep an eye open for her...

I don't really understand politics because Badgers don't have politics.  We live together in big setts underground with lots of generations.  We get born, we mate, we dig holes, we have Cubs and we eat Worms and peanuts (and other stuff I won't mention...) .

In the country where we live, we have 2 main Political groups.  The Conservatories and the Labours. The Conservatories don't seem to like Animals very much and a lot of them like hunting Foxes, and killing Pheasants and Badgers.  But we must mention the Blue Badger group who are Conservatories who do want the Badger Cull to stop. The Labours seem to like Animals a bit more and their leader is Jeremy who is a vegetarian and doesn't even eat worms! He is opposed to vivisection, foie gras, fur farming, hunting, the Badger Cull and wild Animals in circuses. He sounds like a nice Human. This is Mr Corbyn:

Although I am not a political Badger I am very happy that the Labour Animal Rights Group came to our get-together.  They had a very nice sign:

Mr Gove did come to his DEFRA office when we were having our protest and he did say hello to us all.  Some people shouted at him when he was leaving on his way to Chequers to talk about BREXIT.  He got chased to his car by a Badger, but not me because I was busy looking after my Cubs.  

We had four very clever speakers who talked about the wrongness of the Badger Cull.   Two of them were from The Badger Trust, Peter and Dominic,  and a Human called Tom who is taking legal action against the Government, and a Labour Party Animal loving Human called Padraig.  

I am so glad that we had our get-together to show how much Hupeople care about the Badger folk.  Although it was a very cold day lots of good Hupeople came to support Betty and her cubs and I have made lots of new friends. 

Badgers:

Hupeople:  I really want to thank all the lovely people for coming, including Tom and Jane and Nikki and Heather and Frank and Chris and Marge and all the others who were so lovely and kind and brave. 

I was going to go back to DEFRA on Thursday but it looks as if we will be snowed in, so I will probably stay at home in the sett and keep the Cubs warm and well fed.

That's all for now.  Night night, Betty 🐾🐾

PS if you don't want your photo here please writ e comment in the place below and I will take you out 

Betty Badger has a Broken Heart

This birth of my 3 cubs, Blanche, Brian and Bud should have been such a happy time but a very black cloud has descended over our sett.  Mr Gove, who I thought was my friend, has announced that he might be killing Badgers all over the Country.  

What will happen to my babies?  Will they all be dead in the Autumn?  My Badger heart is breaking. 

My Huwoman friend Mary has been raging a lot and crying too because she and her friends have been trying to tell Mr Gove and  DEFRA that Badgers are not responsible for bovine TB.  Even if they were, why not vaccinate us rather than slaughter us? 

If you love Badgers and British wildlife, please try to come to DEFRA on Thursday 22nd Feb and stand up for science and compassion.

Bye Bye.

🐾🐾

Come and Join Betty and her Babies on 22nd February

I am thrilled to tell you that I now have 3 new cubs.  They were born just after I got back from DEFRA last Thursday. I was really worried that they might pop out in my excitement when Mr Gove waved and said Hello again, or that they might be born in the Tubeworm - that would have caused quite a fuss- but we held on until I got back to my sett.

Huwoman Mary made me have what she called a shower before the cubs popped out.  A shower is like a waterfall without the cliff, or a hard rain shower that comes from a tiny cloud.  Mary said that it wouldn't be good for my cubs to be lying on my chest and suckling with all the London pollution on my fur. This is a shower:

My new cubs are Brian, Blanche and Buddha. 

Of course Brian is named after their father Brian who was killed by Mr Gove in the Badger Kill Cull.  I still miss my mate so much.....  Then Blanche is named after the Government Human with the bright white shirt and the sweet smile.  Buddha, Bud for short, is named after the kind DEFRA man who always stops and chats and I think is a Buddhist because he is wise and compassionate. 

Bud is turning ginger so his life might be a little bit more challenging.  Here is another picture of a ginger Badger:

I might have named one of my cubs after Mr Gove too if he had stopped the Kill Cull. Mr Gove has quite a reputation as an Animal lover amongst his Conservatory friends.  Here is a cartoon from a Conservatory magazine.  

Interestingly there are no Badgers in this picture. I do still wonder if Mr Gove knows anything about Badgers- he still has not replied to our letters.  Mary has searched on the internet and there is no picture of him meeting a Badger.   This is a picture of Mr Gove and a Dog. Mr Gove, this Dog is around the same size as a Badger but we are black and white..

My cubs need feeding so I won't say much more now but there are a few important things that I must say before I go.

Firstly, I want to say a big thank you to the lovely DEFRA Human who gave me an Apple when I was feeling a bit weak on Thursday.  That was so kind.  The Apple was called Braeburn but I don't know what the Human was called.

Secondly, I will not be at DEFRA this Thursday as I have to feed the cubs.   Bu.t I will be back next week, the 22nd for a very special day:

I want to invite you and all your friends to come to my get-together outside DEFRA on Thursday 22nd  February from 12 until 2.  

Since Mr Gove and DEFRA have not taken any real notice of me as I stand there month after month, I want to show them that Betty Badger has Hupeople friends who care about her and her Badger friends. These lovely Hupeople don't want thousands and thousands of Badgers killed this Autumn with the traps and the flashbang sticks when they are innocent and just want to live their lives quietly underground eating worms.... and peanuts.  The Badgerman Dominic whom I met a couple of weeks ago has turned our photo into an event:

Gosh!  We even have a couple of speakers...  I would be too excited to sleep, although the cubs are already keeping me awake.

See you soon,

Lots of Badger Love,

From Betty, Blanche, Brian and Bud

🐾🐾🐾🐾,

Betty invites her friends to come and play

I will be having my cubs soon so might have to have a week off from visiting Mr Gove and my DEFRA chums. I wonder if he will miss me....

My Huwoman friend had to go to a funeral on Thursday so she came with me to London Town on Tuesday.  Now that surprised and confused all my friends at DEFRA. Mr Gove was very busy coming and going in his silent Green black car and he had 2 chums with him.  They all waved and smiled at me- 3 TIMES!!! 

I dropped a letter from Huwoman Mary into Mr Gove's office asking why he had not replied to her letters of November and early January.  She asked him why he was continuing with the Cull when we Badgers are not to blame for Cows getting Bovine TB. She asked him how many of the 20,000 Badgers killed in seven weeks in Autumn had been tested to see if they had bTB.  I am only a Badger but I think these are important questions that need to be answered.

Sometimes i think Mr Gove prefers Elephants to Badgers as he spends a lot of time worrying about them.   Apparently they are HUGE and they could easily squash a Badger underfoot without noticing. The ones in the UK are in Prison while the ones in Africa and India are free but are shot like us Badgers by Horrible Humen who want to steal their horns.  These are Elephants:

I just found this picture of Mr Gove with some Cows which will have to do because I cannot find him with any Elephants.

I hope by now he realises that Badgers are not responsible for bovine TB in Cows and don't deserve to die...  

I did mention in my last BLog that I had a nice surprise this week when I met a Badger Lover celled Dominic Dyer outside DEFRA. He is the head Human of an organisation called The Badger Trust. He was very surprised to see a Badger in the middle of London Town.  He took a picture:

We agreed that it would be nice for Betty to have some company one day so:

You are all invited to join Betty and other Badger lovers outside DEFRA on Thursday 22nd February.  From around 12 until we get tired- probably around 2 or 3

I will have had my cubs by then and will try to bring one or two of them with me.  It would be lovely to see you all.

Finally I want to mention that I had a lovely chat with my Human with the white shirt .  He works for the Government , but does not kill Badgers.  I will name one of my cubs after him.  I also had a chat with another of my favourite Humen- the one who told me that the rain doesn't; need to affect me- apart from getting me wet of course...  Anyway, his favourite film is The Shawshank Redemption and in that a Human Prisoner wants a library of Books for the other Prisoners, so he wrote a letter very singe week for 6 years and eventually succeeded in getting  Books and lots of them.


So I have decided that I will be like that man and although I can't write well, I will go to DEFRA every week until we stop the Badger Kill Cull.  Badgers in the Wild normally live 6 years, so I hope that I don't have to go to DEFRA every week until I die......

By the way,  Badgers don't read books.  Apparently some Hupeople don't read books either.  For those of you who don't know, these are books:

They are made of trees and contain patterns in ink called letters and words which tell stories like what my blog has, but not on a computer.  We all like stories don't we?

Hoping to get to DEFRA on Thursday and I must remember not to say "Boo" to anyone.  A man was looking at his phone this week and nearly walked in to me so I said "Boo".  He was quite shocked and  gave me a look that suggested that he definitely did not want to be Betty Badger's friend... 

Night night,  Betty  🐾🐾