Friday 16 November 2018

Biosecurity not Bullets says Betty Badger

Biosecurity not Bullets will beat TB says Betty Badger.

Hello Betty Fans
Mary and I had an exciting day in London yesterday.  Badgers have been in the news a lot this week so I got waves and thumbs up from loads of Hupeople in DEFRA and the Home Office.

When I arrived at Nobel House I was told to go away by the DEFRA Security Huwoman and I was not happy about that. I talked her into letting me stay for an hour.  The reason they were so unfriendly today was that they were attacked by Antichrists yesterday who sprayed purple paint on the walls.  Maybe it was Anarchists and not Antichrists- I am not really sure of the difference.  They were upset about climate change and wanted to make a big point. Seven Hupeople got arrested. Here are the pictures from the newspapers:


The one above is from Downing street where the Antichrists glued themselves to the railings and the one below is at DEFRA  where they did lot of painting.  



Anyway there was very tight security and a nice Human with a beard was trying hard to get the remains of the paint off the marble walls. At least the Antichrists gave him some work for which he got money to buy food.  I promised I wouldn't spray any paint.  


One other exciting thing was I brought my new sign with me that me and Mary made last night.  It is tidy and there are no spelling mistakes because Mary wrote it.  I made up the words though.  Biosecurity not Bullets- catchy!.  Mary talks a lot about Bioseciurity as the way to stop TB and it has been in the news this week too.



We met a  journalist and a camera man but he didn't want to take pictures of me but of Mr Gove.  Everyone in Westminster is in a bit of a flurry over Brexit.  Mrs May made a plan yesterday and her Hupeople Ministers are resigning.  Everyone thought Mr Gove would resign, but he has other plans.  He might be the Prime Minister one day.  He will probably kill even more Badgers then- and maybe other animals too if power goes to his head.

We went on to Marsham Street without getting arrested or glued to anything.  We said Hello to Mr Gove's driver who is always friendly but never gives away any useful information; he is very loyal to Mr Gove and thinks he is a good man!  Still, he is supportive and kind to me and always stops for a chat and makes sure that I am not too hot or cold or thirsty.

Remember that Mary was ill last week well this week she had more difficult body things to deal with.  She had a gastroscopy on Tuesday and I went along in her bag to see what happened.  Basically they put a garden hose in her mouth ...:


and it went down her throat and into her stomach which they blew up with air; she rather noisily let the air out again- and she dribbled a lot too.  They fiddled around in her guts and cut a few bits out.   The good news is that there is nothing wrong with her that cannot be fixed. She likes peanuts too much, just like me and drinks too much coffee. I am so glad that they don't put hoses down Badgers; stomachs- I would run away very fast.

I was really touched when she put in the Next of Kin section of her medical consent form: Name: Betty Badger; Address: The Sett, The Orchard. England.  I don't have a phone number though.  I told Mary that I wouldn't really know what to do if the doctors made a mistake and she died.  She said that I would probably be more useful than her family because I could dig a nice deep hole in her garden and bury her.   Yes; I could do that.   I would even put a few of my favourite peanuts and worms to take with her to the great country in the sky. 


As I said, Badgers were in the news this week.  Remember I told you that in the Debate in Parlyment Mr Eustice the Farming Minister had been comical with the truth? Well a load of important vets agreed on the TV and one of them, Dr Ian McGill called him a liar because he said killing Badgers had made TB go down but in fact, the incidence was going down already, but since they starting killing my Badger friends the amount of Cows with TB has gone up.

Do you also recall how I told you about a report DEFRA was sitting on and not publishing?  It was by Professor Godfray.  

Anyway after pressure at the Debate the report was released. Although Godfray was told not to talk about Badgers he couldn't help himself and said that killing me and my friends wouldn't make  much difference to Cow TB. I think he must have read the tweet Mary sent him .  He also wrote about biosecurity and vaccinating Cows and Badgers.  

So everyone began talking about Badgers but, of course the Brexit furore came out and everyone forgot about us.  I don't think the timing was coincidental.  DEFRA always buries bad Badger news with something else.

I am feeling a little more hopeful than recently because of Professor Godfray and the vets.  I think it will be increasingly difficult for DEFRA to justify killing us. 

The weather will be getting colder this weekend so I will be spending more time  under the ground.  Here is a nice picture of a Badger to leave you with.  I stole it from The Telegraph.


We Badgers are very cute aren't we?

Night Night,  Betty🐾🐾🐾

Saturday 10 November 2018

Betty Does Democracy

Hello Betty Badger Fans,
This week I saw Democracy in action and I was not very impressed.  Me and Mary went to the Parlyment and here is a picture of one of their chairs to prove it:


Last week I told you that Chris Williamson had arranged a Debate so me and Mary and her Chums went to London to protest and have speeches and a vigil while we waited for the Debate to start.  Here we are with Dominic Dyer who is in charge of The Badger Trust and likes to give speeches.  

And here are some of my friends.  It was good to meet them again.


We had some moving speeches from Dominic, the MP Chris Williamson and a surprise visitor called John McDonnell.  He is from the Labour Party and involved in something called Momentum.  He is Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer.  I have no idea what that means except that if all the Hupeople vote for Labour and they take over running the country then he will be very powerful and a good friend to have.  He likes Badgers and thinks the Kill-Cull is wrong and if Labour gets in he will stop the Kill-Cull immediately.  I know that not everyone likes him but we Badgers have a good sense of smell and we can sniff out bad Humen. He seemed very kind and I want to be his friend.


I wish I could vote but Badgers can't vote so I will tell all my Hupeople friends to vote Labour.     

A famous Vet whose name I don't remember gave an impassioned speech about the reality of the Badger Kill-Cull.  What was very interesting to me is that a lot more Deer than Badgers have TB yet they are killing us and not Deer.  This doesn't make any sense at all.  

Also DEFRA is making money by selling the slaughtered TB Cows and these are going into the Food Chain, especially for Pets.  If they are not properly cooked then the Cats and Dogs- and Hupeople-  will get TB from the Cow meat. That is how the Kimblewick Hunt Dogs got TB which they are spreading around six counties. Hupeople who feed raw meat to their Cats, such as those big Bengal Cats, may catch TB from them.   Strange how Hupeople are not talking about this.

I forgot to mention that Mary was feeling very unwell on Tuesday .  I tried to stop her going to London but she is very stubborn where saving Badgers is concerned.  So while her Chums went to the pub, we curled up on the steps under the statue of King George 5th in Old Palace Yard and fell asleep for a couple of hours.  We felt very safe being protected by a King:

We were not moved on by the police.  Perhaps they were worried about catching TB or maybe they thought we were Street Theatre.  I know that lots of tourists took our picture.  Eventually we were woken up by a man giving a tour called "Palaces of London".  He was very noisy.

Then it was getting close to the time for the Debate.  The Security Hupeople had said earlier that Mary could wear a Badger suit, without the head, in protest but when we came back they wouldn't let her as there had been "a change of Policy".  Here she is when they made her take her head off:


Nor was she allowed to wear her Stop the Cull T-shirt.  Here she is wearing it.
At this point she started taking all her tops off and showed the police officer her underwear but then remembered that she had another top to wear so we were all spared our blushes.  It was very funny.

And nor was Mary allowed to bring me in to see the Debate but Mary hid me and one of the older Cubs in her bag;  Here we are climbing inside.

Lovely Nikki, who does so much for Badger Folk, went with Mary into the ancient Westminster Hall.  Then a young Huwoman showed us to the Debate room.  She must have been new because she showed us into a room where there was a reception being held with the Albanian Ambassador and all sorts of Important Hupeople from the tourism industry. We were offered wine and tea and food:  Mary took a picture of the food:  


And her friend Nikki with her free wine 


The MP who was there asked Mary what her interest in Albania was.  She said she was here for the Badgers and that confused him a bit.... 
The Albanian Hupeople said that Albania was lovely like Greece or Spain but cheaper.  I think Mary might go there for her next holiday, once she has stopped the Kill-Cull.

Finally the Debate started.  This is how Democracy worked.  It was so very sad to see only five Hupeople in the big room to discuss killing us Badgers and one of them left after a while. Chris Williamson MP is very clever and articulate and spoke about how unscientific, expensive and cruel the Kill-Cull is.  He said how Badgers can suffer for five minutes before they die when shot.  He said killing Badgers has already cost £50 Million, money that could be used to make difference to Farmers. He said that 70,000 Badgers will be killed by the end of this year and may be wiped out of areas where we have lived since the Ice Age. He said how Cattle movements cause the spread of bovine TB, not Badgers, and that important Experts such as the Zoological Society say that vaccinating is a better option.  Another Labour MP supported him and a Human from the Scottish Nationalists.  

Then the Farming Minster Mr Eustice got up and spoke.


He told lots of half-truths and twisted statistics so it looked as if killing Badgers was helping stop TB which the experts agree is not true.   Mary had to stop me leaping out of her bag to go and bite him and had to restrain Nikki from shouting at him.  It is so wicked that he didn't tell the truth.  

By this time there were 3 Hupeople against the Kill-Cull and Mr Eustice for it, so I thought "This is Democracy so the 3 Hupeople will win".  But just before the end of the Debate three Conservatories walked in and sat behind Mr Eustice just so he could win the vote.  They had not heard the Debate nor taken any part in it.  All the words are in this link to Hansard which is a Human who copies down all the words  said in Parlyment:

Mary is very downhearted and has lost all faith in Politics.  If we can draw anything even slightly positive from the Debate it is that Mr Eustice spoke about the eventual "Exit Strategy"  which suggests that killing Badgers will stop one day. But Betty Badger will have met the Great Badger in the Sky long before then I think.

Mary took to her bed in despair and illness, only getting up to go to DEFRA on Thursday for a couple of hours, because she has to.  This is Mary's bed:


But there is good news.  Mary is feeling a lot better now and also, yesterday she got her metal box on wheels back after 2 weeks.  She said not being able to drive was like not having legs, especially as we live in the Country and there are no shops or transport.  I was worried about her and her cats starving. 

I said she should focus on the positive such as how the taxi drivers got lots of money, and her friends Pauline, Nikki & Charlie and ex-mates Larry and Richard helped her out by giving her lifts.  And, better still, she did grocery shopping online for the first time and a lovely young Human called Stephen in a big green metal box on wheels covered in apples brought us loads of food yesterday. The two of us had a little party. 

Thank you for reading my story about Democracy and thank you to all those Hupeople whose Pictures I used, especially Badger Heather, another amazing Huwoman. 

Night Night,

Betty  🐾🐾🐾 

Friday 2 November 2018

Betty Badger Goes Green

Hello Betty Fans!
Today I met a Green Huwoman called Caroline Lucas. Apparently she is an MP and a very important Leader.  We had our picture taken together and she likes Badgers.  She said that she has argued against the Badger Kill-Cull and she will carry on fighting against it.  I want to be her friend as she is kind and clever and has a smile that made me feel less sad. Here is her picture:

Another kind Badger-loving MP called Chris Williamson has organised a debate on the Badger Kill-Cull with all the MPs next Tuesday in a big House called The Commons or Parlyment . Me and Mary and some of our Badger friends are going along to stand outside. 
This is Chris Williamson:

But I am not too hopeful that anything will change, even though we all know that killing Badgers is unscientific, cruel and cannot stop TB. The Conservatories are in charge and they can do what they like and we know that most of them hate Badgers, with a few exceptions. Mary said I am jaundiced and I thought she meant I'd turned yellow, but she said it also means "affected by bitterness, resentment and cynicism" .  She is probably right, especially since my cub Bryony was shot.

Last Thursday my Human friends Vanessa and David came to see me again with their Badger body coverings and big signs.  Here they are:

They gave me an iced bun topped with sticky icing and stuck to my teeth. I loved it. The buns come from Marks and Spencer and they are Vegan, which means that they don't have any animal bits in, such as Cow breast milk or Pig fat. Here is a picture of the bun:

Vanessa And David did something very important to help my grieving over Bryony,  They made a lovely wreath which we put next to Bryony's body outside DEFRA.  They are very talented Hupeople


And here is another one of their signs and me with Bryony's Body


Today it was very cold and wet and on top of that Mary's metal box on wheels has died so we had to get expensive taxis or walk to get to DEFRA. Mary was not in a good mood so I suggested that we went into see our friends in Caffe Nero across the road from DEFRA.  We had a jolly time and Mary had a Soya Cappuccino which is all frothy and has chocolate on the top.  She actually paid money for it instead of getting it free which she sometimes does because Caffe Nero are kind to Badgers and their friends.  It made her happy and we got warm.  Here is the Cappuccino that worked its magic on Mary: 


Last week I was too sad to write my BLog but  as we walked through Pimlico Station we were once again given heart by the positive messages that they leave for us. Here is last week's:

So even though we have felt like giving up the fight since Bryony died, we will not be beaten by those wicked people who will not listen to sense and science and stop killing Badger folk.

We had lots of adventures in the past couple of weeks.  On our way to DEFRA we were reminded about how clever Hupeople are...... sometimes.  There was a Human digging lots of deep holes while sitting down!

And we saw huge metal creatures carrying things around the sky to make new high setts.  I would be very dizzy if I had to live in one of those.  I have to admit that  Hupeople are very inventive.  We Badgers only have our claws to make holes but I think we do pretty well. Hupeople talk a lot about growth and progress but I suppose that we Badgers are pretty content with our lives so don't need to dig deeper or build higher.  


Last week the Pimlico Homeless Dog had a limp and we worried about him. Today he looked happier as he sat on the bed he shares with his Human. Mary is keeping an eye on the Dog. I wonder if he and the Human share their fleas? We do in our sett. 



Did I tell you that Me and Mary have joined a choir?  We like the choir because for our warm-up song we sang the William Tell Overture with the words:

Michael Gove, Michael Gove Michael Gove Gove Gove,
Michael Gove, Michael Gove Michael Gove Gove Gove,
Michael Gove, Michael Gove Michael Gove Gove Gove,
Michael Gove is a ****  ****  ****  ****    

The **** is a very rude word that I am too polite to write here.


Mary has decided to learn to shoot.  I am not sure it's such a good idea because she does get very angry with Hupeople who hurt animals.   I doubt if she will get a licence from the police.  If she does I recommend that you stay away from her area a keep a close eye out for these signs:


Time to get out and clear the sett and put in new winter bedding.  We will be spending a lot of time underground and it may be hard for Mary to persuade me to get out of my nice snug nest.  But we have to keep telling Hupeople about the cruel Kill-Cull so I am sure I will see some of my DEFRA friends next week.

Love to all Badger-Lovers.

Betty 🐾🐾🐾