Although Mary has met Mr Gove many times, they have never said much more than Hello so she was very excited to meet him properly. He kept to his word of seeing her within 2 months of his agreement to see her.
Mary wanted to be taken seriously so she put on her best funeral suit and her shoe stilts and even used hair spray, which is a form of horrible chemical warfare. When Mary arrived at 2 Marsham Street, Bob the security man didn't recognise her as she does scrub up quite well. He told her she was beautiful and after that there was no stopping her!
Security at 2 Marsham Street is very very strict because it is a Seat of Power where the Home Office as well as Defra is based. Mary had her own personal escort to take her to the hallowed halls of Defra, with its glass walls overlooking London Town. Mary was almost moved to tears by all the kindness she received from everyone because they knew she was my friend and I have lots of Betty fans at Marsham Street. They were all excited to see her and they even called her Betty and offered her a cup of coffee. Mr Gove's lovely driver came and sat with Mary and told her not to worry because Mr Gove is the nicest of all the politicians he has ever met.
You probably want to know what happened when Mary met Mr Gove. She said he was courteous, respectful, that he listened carefully and seemed to take on board some of the things she said such as:
1. The government has spent £50 million on killing innocent Badgers when they could have invested that money in creating cattle vaccine. We were promised that by 2014.
2. It is said that government kills Badgers because the NFU (National Farmers Union) has Defra in its pocket. Many big farmers hate badgers because we sometimes flatten a bit of wheat or make a hole in a fence when we have our night time parties and occasionally one of our tunnels collapses and a tractor can get stuck. But perhaps NFU hates us most of all because we are a protected species so they should not build houses on our land or disturb us, so we get in the way of making profits. Minette Batters is the head of the NFU and hates Badgers. Here she is:
3. Professor Godfray who wrote a report for Defra, said that the main way TB is spread is from Cow to Cow. Something like 60% of farmers in high TB areas recently admitted in Farmers Weekly that their bio-security isn't good enough. If your read my blogs regularly, you will know that the only time when TB was under control in this country was when we had that dreadful Foot and Mouth Disease and all Cow movements were stopped and there was strict bio-security.
4. Professor Godfray also said that the government should move away from killing Badgers as it can only have a minimal effect on TB and he said, in any case, it would be cheaper and more effective to vaccinate Badgers than to kill them.
5. There is no scientific justification for killing Badgers. They are just one of many species of Wildlife who are victims of this Cow disease
6. Almost all wildlife and veterinary experts agreed that killing Badgers is wrong and cruel and will not stop the problem with TB which is a disease spread by Cows and farmers.
7. We must use the more reliable (and expensive) test for TB in Cows as the present one is less useful than tossing a coin, so sick Cows are moving around the country making other Cows sick and making Wildlife sick. Even Water Voles have caught TB from Cows. It would be more logical for Defra to kill ALL wildlife in areas where there is TB in cows and I wouldn't be surprised if that was their next plan.
8. Mr Gove has recently taken a courageous stand about the big game hunting of Tigers and other innocent Animals. Mary says that Badgers are British Tigers and Elephants; they are disliked because they get in the way of farmers and expanding Hupeople communities so they are killed. Some British Hupeople criticise these other countries for killing their wildlife yet we are doing the same. This is a Tiger.
Mary hopes Mr Gove will have the courage to transform his Legacy from The Secretary of State who oversaw the destruction of our ancient and "protected" Badger population (including me and my family) or whether his Legacy will be as The Secretary of State who had the Courage to defy the pressure from Vested Interests such as the NFU and adopted a policy based on science and not scapegoats.
Mary has a plan which all fans know about of vaccinating Cows, and vaccinating Badgers where there is lots of TB, to save them from catching it from Cows and suffering.
Anyway, Mary did the best she could for us Badger folk, but she is left believing that Mr Gove will kill another 50,000 badgers this Autumn FOR NO REASON OTHER THAN TO ALLOW THE GOVERNMENT TO SAVE FACE AND PLEASE THE FARMERS. And my cubs and grandcubs will be cruelly shot, just like my Brian and Byrony were. Still, there was a hopeful sign in an announcement on Farming Today on the wireless a couple of days ago about Cow vaccination. It might be ready in a year.
So Mr Gove and Defra please stop killing innocent Badgers NOW and increase bio-security. As one of Mary's Signs says BIO-SECURITY NOT BULLETS! and another says VACCINATE NOT EXTERMINATE.
Mary took me to Defra again this week, but on a Friday because some of our Badger and Hupeople friends were having a Die In and Protest. It rained buckets, but we Badgers like rain. Mary used a microphone three times and spoke very loudly and got cheered. She is normally very shy, except when it comes to talking about Wildlife. Here are some pictures:
I wonder if you heard about Brian the Badger who hitched a lift all the way from Ware in Hertfordshire to London. I would like to meet him because he sounds an adventurous sort of Badger Chap like me. However, I would like to let him know that there are easier and safer ways getting to London Town, such as finding a Huwoman to carry you up and down hundreds of steps in a Betty Bag so you don't have to make any effort at all. Here is a picture of Brian after he was disentangled from the Metal box on wheels by the RSPCA . It had a happy ending because he is now back with his family.
Mary now has nine Rescue Chickens as well as an ancient Mother who she has rescued too. Rescue Mother has come to live with Mary while her bones mend. Mary has bought a Play house for her Chickens to keep them dry and cool. She lets the Rescue Mother stay in her own house, which I think is probably better than being outside with the Chickens. Here are some of the new chickens:
The new and old Chickens fight all the time because they have culture called "a pecking order" which means that you peck and pull out each other's feathers until you work out who is top Chicken. Bottom Chicken gets pecked by everyone. Mary and Rescue Mother haven't quite worked out yet who is top Huwoman in Mary's house. Life is much less complicated when you are a Badger, apart from everyone trying to kill you
of course.PS Michael Gove might lose his job this week. I think he has tried to do some good things for the planet but Boris Johnson doesn't like him so will probably send him to Northern Ireland, which is a very long way from London Town. We will miss his cheery Hello
Night Night
Betty 🐾🐾🐾
