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🐾🐾🐾