Hello Betty Fans.
Starting our seventh year in Westminster, me and Mary are older and tireder but now 2023 has started we have renewed vigour and determination. Later I will tell you about my meeting with Grant Shapps but before that....
Our first Defra day of the January in the Human year 2023 was challenging but also very jolly. It was good to see again the security staff who have become our friends and who look after us. Mary continues to avoid the advances of a potential mate. She is too old anyway, just like me.
Do you remember how I was banned from sitting on the Marsham Street wall after Mary had the audacity to challenge Mr George Eustice SS of Defra? Well, A Huwoman called Therese Coffey is now in charge at Defra. She was in charge of health for a while but she wasn't the best advert so they thought she would be better at Defra. This is the picture that probably lost her the health job.
All those journeys into the countryside for Defra should mean that she will get more exercise, although she has never yet been seen wandering around Westminster so she might not be keen on walking. That could mean she might be more sympathetic to an old Badger's (and old Hupeople like Mary's) need for a sit down during her vigil. It would mean we could stay longer. I have told Mary to just sit down on the wall, but she was told last time she sat there that she would be arrested. Here I am sitting on the wall before we were banned.
We met some wonderful Hupeople today. One Human blew us a very long and meaningful kiss. Several other Hupeople said "Hello Betty" or "Thank you Betty." One Huwoman came to see us and said how she had been reading this Betty Badger blog. I started it in 2015 when I was not much more than a Cub. I began my vigil then because Defra had just shot my Cub Bryony. My heart was broken and I didn't know what else to do so I started this vigil to tell the whole world about cruelty to Badgers and the government killing them.
Here is a picture of Byrony. She was a very beautiful Badger....
Anyway this lovely young Huwoman said that I had lots of
fans in Marsham Street who were on my side. That was so good to know and it
made us cry with gratitude.
We met some important Humen today. We met Tony Juniper who is the head of Natural England and who bears a lot of responsibility for the Badger kill-cull.. Tony Juniper used to be in charge of the Wildlife Trusts and when Mary first met him then he admitted that he didn't know much about Badgers. Clearly he still doesn't, nor does he care. He was going into a meeting in Defra today and said hello and Mary replied "we are still here after six years". Here is Tony Juniper
I think Mary needs to write to him. She also needs to write to Mr Sunak who I think is the King of the Government. Here is Mr Sunak
Another important Human from 2 Marsham Street spoke to us and said how there was
only one year of kill-culling left. Mary, who knows a lot about these things, said
" what about the supplementary culls and the epidemiological culls".
He said he didn't know anything about these because he was only in charge of
policing the kill-culls.
We had a bit of an argument today with a Huwoman who had
blue hair who wasn't very bright and didn't want to listen. I must be clear
that some Hupeople with blue hair are bright, but not this one....
She said she knew a farmer who had Cow TB in his herd of Cows. Mary said it wasn't the Badgers fault but poor testing and
biosecurity. This made Blue-Hair angry and she accused Mary of being "an
academic". We have had worse insults....
Before the holiday we had two new Secretaries of State. Mr. Jayawardena only stayed for a few weeks and we didn't meet him. Then Therese Coffey took over so Mary asked our MP Grant Shapps for an appointment with her. We went to see Grant in his office in Hatfield in November. Here is Grant who has also had a few jobs in recent months. He is now Secretary of State for Business and Other Things and works in 2 Marsham Street. Unfortunalty he doesn't work there on Thursdays so he and Mary can't go out to lunch and get to know each other better
Grant was very kind and flattered Mary saying how much he admired her commitment to our cause. But as Mary said "Kind words butter no parsnips." I have no idea what that means but I do know what parsnips are because I will dig them up if you are growing them in a garden near me. These are buttered Parsnips:
Mr Shapps and Therese Coffey are both members of the club called "The Cabinet" so I hope they will have a chat about us. We are still waiting...
Another lovely Huwoman came and talked to us on Thursday. She ran across the road from Caffe Nero calling out "Hello Badger Woman!" She told us she had been away for more than three years working in another government department and was delighted to see we were still there. Mary made the point that she would rather not be there in the cold wind and the rain but curled up in the warm at home with a good book.. I would like to be snug in my sett with my family but we both have A MISSION.
Badgers like me don't normally move far from their sett in winter but stay below the ground saving their energy because there isn't much food around. Obviously where Mary lives there is food because she and her neighbours put out lots of lovely peanuts for us so that helps us survive because the worms which are our favourite food go deep underground when the weather is cold. .
Also Badger Cubs are born from late January so the young mothers-to-be are getting themselves ready and strong to feed the new generation. We are all very excited.
One funny thing happened a few nights ago to Mary. You know
how the last Secretary of State George Eustice made her cry and told her that he was going to
carry on killing badgers? Well, Mary had a dream about him and he was lovely
and offered her a job in his estate agency. He said that she seemed mature and sensible and the public would trust her. I am not sure they would have that much confidence in Mary if they knew she talked to Badgers.
Although the government is talking about ending the Badger
cull, they are lying. Although the main cull will end soon, they have given
themselves permission to kill unlimited numbers of Badgers under supplementary
and epidemiological culls. They have not stated the criteria for these and
most Badger experts believe this is a ploy to kill many more of my
friends
Soon Defra will announce its numbers for the autumn Badger Kill-Cull and it is likely to take the numbers killed to over 200,000. That's around half the Badger population of England. And they had the nerve to attend Cop 15, the United Nations Biodiversity Conference in Canada in December.
Mary tells me that if we assume every Badger to be 1 metre long then all the Badger bodies killed by Defra laid end to end would line the A1Motorway all the way to Lincoln Cathedral. That's quite a hard thought to bear.
Changing the subject away from the sadness of Badgers, Mary has 11 Chickens now and she has implanted most of them so they don't lay eggs any more. I think that's unfair because I did occasionally sneak in and eat an egg when Mary wasn't looking. I think Mary will get some new ones soon so there will be more eggs. Some of the eggs the Chickens lay are enormous which is why Mary has implanted the Chickens because some of them died trying to lay these big eggs. Here are some of the eggs:
When I go to eat Mary's peanuts at night I am very annoyed to see a big herd of Fallow Deer. They are now regular visitors and are stealing my food. Here is a video of some of the Deer on one of the warmer nights in the summer.
And here is a video in the dark showing how brave I am eating my peanuts even though those Fallows have big sharp trees growing out of their heads.
Time to say goodnight and hoping to have some better news soon. Thank you to all those Badger lovers who are still working very hard to help us Badgers. And, finally, if you see an injured Badger or a lost Cub, please contact your local Badger Group or The Badger Trust.
Night, night,
Betty 🐾🐾
