Betty has News

Hello Betty Badger Fans.

I am back above ground after a long cold winter of discontent. I have so much to tell you about me, and about Mary who has had her adventures too. 

My biggest and best news is that, as a result of a bit of slap and tickle with Bertie, I have become a Badger Mother again. I have three new cubs, Barbara, Boris and Bradley. Here is a Badger Cub:

Who would have thought that an old Badger like me could manage that?  I still love my Brian who was shot in the Kill-Cull three years ago but life has to go on, particularly as Defra has now killed around 150,000 of us so we have to get our numbers up again.  

The Cubs were born three weeks ago and I am busy feeding them my milk. Oh I do worry about what will happen to them when they go above ground.  There are so many dangers for a little Badger: snares, Dogs, cars, Foxes and, worst of all, Hupeople who seem to find great pleasure in harming us Badgers.

We have spent a most of our time over the last few months under the ground in our setts. I ate so much food to keep me going over the winter months that I grew enormously fat and had to make the tunnels bigger so I could get in.  We have used up our stored fat now and I am looking forward to  Mary's peanuts once I can leave the Cubs for a while. 

We haven't been to Defra since December when I wore my Christmas hat. Here I am in my hat:

Then the lockup was announced and Mary was told that if she came again she would indeed be arrested and locked up.  She wouldn't have minded so much but the Chickens would have died without her to feed them.   We are going back as soon as we can.  Boris, the Prime Minister not my little Boris, announced last night a gradual end to your lockup starting soon. This is what the BBC says you can do from 8th March.

•  "Recreation in outdoor public spaces - such as a park - will be allowed between two people, meaning they would be allowed to sit down for a coffee, drink or picnic"

I wonder if that means me and Mary can meet up again outside Defra?  We will have to take advice. 

Now, you might be wondering why we need to keep protesting outside Defra when George Eustice announced in January that the Kill-Cull was coming to an end. Just for a moment mine and Mary's hearts lifted when we heard the news on her wireless but then we remembered  how he said last March that the shooting was being phased out.  All lies and weasel words as he went on to increase the number of zones where Badgers could be killed and the numbers of us being shot. Weasels are known for being ruthless killers so I think that suits Mr. Eustice very well. 

George Eustice killed 38,642 in the autumn, the most Badgers ever.  Just think about all the fear and suffering and grief of their families.  This time he has decided that, until the end of 2022, he will still issue four year licenses for killing Badgers so that means we could be shot for another 6 years.  On top of that, he will allow Supplementary Licenses so Badgers can be killed where deemed necessary (!!!), with no end in sight.  How many more tens of thousands of innocent Badgers will be shot? My heart was broken again.

On the positive side, George is now thinking about what Mary has been suggesting for the past decade.  It is only sad that we have had to wait so long for Defra to see sense.  We know these proposals have been delayed because most of the farmers and the NFU want as many Badgers dead as possible. Mary has been telling Defra for so long that the solution to Cow TB is Cow vaccination, better biosecurity and using the more accurate gamma interferon tests. That means fewer infected Cows will be moved around the country infecting more Cow herds for  which Badgers will inevitably be blamed.  

Mary has asked Defra to investigate why Cows are moved around the country quite so much-1.5 million a year-  they hardly do it in other countries. The Europeans laugh at the British saying that moving our livestock around is a national sport.  And it's not very nice for the cows and sheep who must be very scared when they are loaded into trucks.

Mary has had a hard three months so she probably wasn't up to going to Defra anyway.  She caught Covid 19 in October when she went into a school to talk to the students about being kind to Animals, including Badgers.  She was very ill and thought she would die. She was too ill to feed the chickens but her friends Mike and Vanessa did that for her until she was better.  Then she had both her eyes sliced open in something she called cataract surgery. I think she is mad but she says she is glad she had it done because she can see the stars in the sky again.  Then her mother Nora died of Covid in January and then Mary caught an evil stomach bug from the Chickens. 

Mary got six new rescue Chickens in December.  Oh dear, they were in a dreadful state when she brought them home.  They had lived in little cages no bigger than a piece of paper all their lives.  They had never seen the sun, or the grass, or night or ever scratched in the earth for worms.  I am so glad I'm not a caged Chicken. I wouldn't want to live if I couldn't dig for worms.   Here is a picture of the first Chicken to come out of the coop on their first morning at Mary's. 

She is called Boudicca because she was so brave to come out and face the big world.   They didn't have many feathers and Mary was worried they might die from the cold but they are tough little warriors.  The others are called Parsnip, Radish, Sweetcorn, Pumpkin and Broccoli.

The Chickens have been in lockup too since December 14th because of something called Avian flu brought in by immigrant Birds flying in from other counties for the summer. The new Chickens don't realise they are in lockdown because they have so much space in comparison to what they had before.  The old girls are very unhappy because they can't wander around the garden now. Barbara the Chicken who used to go to bed up a pear tree can't do that any more because trees are out of bounds now, but she makes a bid to escape every day and sometimes succeeds. She is a very spirited Chicken. As some of you will know, Badgers eat Chickens but I have restrained myself and just eaten the odd egg. Mary thinks it's the rats. 

Spring is coming and the bulbs are pushing through the ground and me and Mary are full of hope for a new beginning.  Today I heard the Woodpecker banging on a dead tree trying to attract a mate. Giving yourself a headache and making a loud noise to get a girl seems an odd thing to do.  And they keep me awake when I am sleeping during the day. Here is a woodpecker.  

I have to go back to feed the Cubs now.  I hope to see my friends at Defra very soon and begin to write my blogs again, if Boris, Bradley and Barbara will let me.

Night Night,

Betty  🐾🐾🐾🐾