Sweaty Betty becomes Wet Bet

Hello Betty Badger Friends! The last two Thursdays at DEFRA have been quite trying for this Badger.  I thought that the 35 degree heat was bad but I have been nearly drowned for the last two weeks. Mary said it has been like standing  a car wash.  I didn't know what one of those was but isn't The Google Oracle clever? This is a car wash:

I got very wet paws...but there are advantages to rain. Firstly, Badgers love Worms- half our diet is made up of Worms.  When it is dry they go deep underground where we can't reach them so we get hungry,  When it rains heavily, they lounge around on the grass surface waiting for us to eat them.  Here is a picture of Worms that makes me feel happy and hungry.

Another good thing about rain is that it makes some Hupeople very kind.   Now, I have heard that Estate Agents have a bad reputation, but when I was standing in the pouring rain a nice Human came across the road from Garton Jones and offered me an umbrella because he felt so sorry for me.  See? estate agents do have hearts.  

And then two lovely Huwomen from Caffe Nero brought across a cup of steaming coffee for me and the cubs to warm us up.  They make good strong coffee, although it made the cubs a bit uppity.

After that a group of Huwomen came and talked to us and asked to have their photo taken with me.  Now that I have been on Woman's Hour I am a bit of a Celebrity Badger.  These Women are members of a group called Damesnet.  Mary looked at the internetweb and it looks like it is a club for very clever females who talk about things like Art and Politics and Cleavage. They were in London  for a Picnic,which means "eating outside".  So we Badgers have Picnics every day.  They said it was too wet to have a Picnic so wandered off laughing noisily having a jolly time.  I told Mary she should join them...

As we were going home we saw a young Huwoman in a pretty dress talking on her phone with water pouring down her face.  It had stopped raining by then and Mary explained that the water was coming from her eyes and she was crying. It seems that her heart was broken by her mate dumping her. So when your heart breaks water comes out of your eyes...  When my Brian was killed with the flash-bang sticks in the KillCull I probably cried too.

In Pimlico Tubeworm Station they sometimes have Hupeople without setts lying around but this week all the Homeless Hupeople's beds were wet and they had gone away to find somewhere dry to sleep. 

 

But we found a homeless Dog  in the station looking very sad.  He was still there whining on his bed when we came back hours later. 

Mary was in tears about these Hupeople and Dog, but the staff at Pimlico are kind and I'm sure they look out for Dog.  They even put uplifting sayings on a board every day to help the Commuters with heavy hearts.  

The security Hupeople outside DEFRA in Marsham Street are always very friendly and they don't send us away but one of them said to Mary that she was wasting her time and making herself ill standing around in all weathers .  Mary told him that since DEFRA won't stop killing Badgers she has to keep reminding people that the wickedness is going on.  I don't mind going with her and it gives the cubs a day out.

I promised to tell you how the cubs were getting on .  Benjamin, Bryony and Boniface are all grown up now and have their own mates.  They have their own chambers in our sett but come and see me often. The little ones Brian, Blanche and Buddha don't need my milk anymore, but it was touch and go when the weather was so dry because some badgers died as they didn't have water or Worms.  Luckily Mary has a pond and a supply of peanuts so we got through the dry season.

Of course I am very very worried about the announcement that Mr Gove will make any day now about how many Badgers he wants to kill this Autumn. Mary has been in correspondence with (which means writing to) DEFRA regularly.  She wants them to vaccinate Cows and and stop ALL cattle movements from counties where there is CowTB. They say there isn't a vaccine for Cows that is suitable.  Mary said that she finds it remarkable how Hupeople can send Humen and Huwomen to The Moon, manipulate DNA, create the Google Oracle and create Hucubs in test tubes and they STILL haven't managed to create a vaccine.  I think it is because they want to carry on blaming Badgers for TB so they have an excuse to Kill us.  Some Hupeople hate Badgers and enjoy killing us.

Oh, one final bit of news.  Remember how me and Mary went to the Conservatory Party Conference in Man Chester last year? 

Conservatory Party
Conference 2018

Well, this year it is in Birmingham where Mary has kin and she will take me up there with her.  We are contacting her MP Grant Schnapps to see if he can get us a ticket to meet all the MPs and talk to them about Badgers.  "In your dreams" some people might say, but if you don't have a dream, how will you have a dream come true?  

Our fan Tom who writes lovely poems and prose in the comments section after each BLog keeps our spirits up when me and Mary lose hope.  He makes us remember how important it is to save our Badger friends and to do what we can.  For older people like Mary she stands around and writes letters, while younger fitter people are already building camps in the KillCull zones  to save Badger lives.  We Badgers are so grateful  and glad that there are brave, wise and compassionate Hupeople on our side.  Thank you lovely Hupeople.

Night Night

Betty  🐾🐾

Beavers next on the Culling List?

Hello Fans,Betty Badger Here.

Mr Gove has been in the news a lot this week- probably because he wants to be popular and become the head of the Conservatory Party.

He was busy down in the Forest of Dean introducing Beavers back into the wild after Hupeople wiped them out.   These are Beavers.  They are a bit like Badgers but not as beautiful:

Here is an excerpt from the Newspaper report:

Mr Gove said: “The beaver has a special place in English heritage and the Forest of Dean. This release is a fantastic opportunity to develop our understanding of the potential impacts of reintroductions and help this iconic species, 400 years after it was driven to extinction.

“The community of Lydbrook has shown tremendous support for this scheme and the beavers will be a welcome addition to local wildlife.

“The project is an example of our wider approach to enhancing biodiversity. It is another step towards our aim of leaving the environment in a better state for future generations.”

I have to admit that I did snigger a bit when I read that.  Mr Gove wants to "help this iconic species" - Badgers are an iconic species too... His aim is to enhance biodiversity- but clearly Badgers are not included in that. Can you imagine how one day we might be saying the same thing about Badgers being reintroduced after we wiped them out.

The really sad thing about the story is that the Beavers are being released into an area where there is bovine TB so the poor things might get the disease from the Cows and then one day Mr Gove will be kill culling Beavers because they are wandering around spreading bovine TB.

Another funny article was about Mr Gove being awarded the title of Politician of the Year by the RSPCA.  Mary was drinking a cup of tea when she read this and sprayed her tea all around the kitchen.  There a was uproar amongst wildlife lovers and a petition was organised.  Why?  Because not only has Mr Gove killed more than 20,000 Badgers in the last year but he has also authorised the killing of Ravens, another protected species.  There are fewer than 8,000 pairs of Ravens in the whole of the UK and the RSPB is very worried. OK they hurt the odd Lamb, but surely that's the way of Life?

I can't understand why the profit from Animal farming is more important than the lives of Ravens- most of the poor Lambs are killed for meat anyway by Hupeople by the time they are six months old.  Given a chance, then they might live until 14 years.   You had better take a look at this picture of a Raven just in case we wipe these out too.

Mr Gove is also quite keen to kill all the Grey Squirrels too...

Oh and he is very happy for people to shoot animals for fun.  He has attended a number of meetings where he praised the shooting fraternity.  Here is one example from a magazine called Shooting UK.

He told the All Party Parliamentary Group for Game and Wildlife Conservation that “those who have an interest in game shooting have by definition an interest in sustainability”.

Read more at https://www.shootinguk.co.uk/news/defra-boss-gove-praises-shooters-94122#IoaOQwaFS6ZXAHau.99

Once again as a simple Badger I can't understand why Hupeople deposit 35 Million Pheasants and Partridges into my countryside every year then rich men shoot them and pay around £1000 a day for the privilege. They poison, snare, trap and kill our Foxes, and Crows and Weasels and Magpies and Buzzards.  Mr Gove says that these Animal killers have an interest in sustainability.  It seems to me that they are actually interested in killing and money.  This is a Shooter and a dead Pheasant: 

This is an injured Pheasant left to die:

Mary says I am going on a bit and getting upset so I had better change the subject.  But she has asked me to mention her Government Petition aiming to ban shooting Pheasants and some other Birds for sport;  She has put a link in here and would be very grateful if you would all sign it and tell your friends about it:  

Petition against shooting for sport 

Me and Mary have had a couple of challenging Thursdays at 2 Marsham Street with temperatures at around 35 degrees which is too hot for fur... Still, once again the Angels were about when a Human walked up to Mary and thrust a 2 litre bottle of water into her hand and said "This is for you".  I think he saved our lives as we drank every drop.

     

We  Badgers are all worried waiting for the announcements about this year's main Badger Kill Cull.  It is already hard enough for us to survive with no water and now they want to kill tens of thousands of us when we are innocent. Mary hasn't been offered her appointment with Mr Eustice yet.  She has had emails from various people at DEFRA but they avoid the main issues such as why they don't stop all cattle movements and improve other bio-security measures like they did when we had foot and mouth disease in the country.  The fact that they didn't review the Badger killing shows that DEFRA is hiding the truth and doesn't want its actions investigated.

This has been a bit of a serious Badger Log but I will tell you about the family next time.  We are all well and looking forward to some rain.  We are also very happy because the farmer has been cutting the Barley so we have lots of new straw to make fresh beds.

Night Night Hupeople.

Love, Betty  🐾🐾

Betty set for Hollywood

Hello Hupeople! 

Today was a big day for Badgers and for me Betty Badger. I got on my first moving picture when Lee (and Simon from Change.org) came to DEFRA to hand in a petition about stopping the Badger Kill Cull.   Do you know that more than 200,000 lovely Hupeople took the time to sign the petition including my friend Vanessa? 

I hope I didn't upset Lee because the first thing I said to him was "You are very handsome....for a human".  Lee is an ecologist who loves wildlife, especially Bats and Badgers and he lives in Wales where they have decided not to kill Badgers for no good scientific reason but instead use vaccination.  Lee was very good at explaining how stupid the Kill Cull is. Here is our picture. 

And here is the link to the video film of me and Lee:

Betty and Lee with Badger Petition

The video makes it look as if it all went very easily but the Hupeople at DEFRA in Marsham Street wouldn't let Lee in with his petition even though Lee had told them he was coming. They were worried that he might have a bomb in his box so we opened it.  Here is a picture of me with the petition box bomb:

They wouldn't even let him hand in a memory stick with all the names on it in case it blew up the DEFRA computer system. In the end we went to the other DEFRA office in Smith Square where they are not as fussy.  We had hoped that Mr Gove or Mr Eustice would take our petition but, as usual, they were too busy- probably talking about The Brexit or scheming to kill Mrs May.

Mary had been very excited about meeting Lee and Simon and she even made me a new sign to put round my neck as the other one was very scruffy .  She didn't let me write the sign in case I got the spelling of "innocent" wrong again.

I met lots of my old DEFRA friends again so I am just sending them a message: 

"HELLO FANS AT DEFRA! Nice to see you!

It was very hot today again and it was a bit difficult for me and Mary to stand around for hours, but we know it is important for us to keep people talking about Badgers.  One interesting observation I made was that some of the the Humen cut off their leg coverings to keep cool.  That is all very well, but when  you are on the silver Tubeworm with Humen doing what is called Man-spreading then it can be very uncomfortable. A Human sitting next to Mary kept tickling her legs with his furry legs.  He had more fur than a Badger.

This is a picture of Man spreading I found on the internet:

Still, I suppose they have to do that to keep their spermatozoa cool enough to make Cubs.....

Outside DEFRA I met a senior Huwoman who works in the Home Office in an important and secret job. She was very elegant and kind and listened to my story.  I hope she is reading this and that she will talk to her important friends.  We all know that the Badger Kill Cull has become muddied by vested interests and politics.   Mary is waiting anxiously to hear about the Cull Zones for this autumn and how many of my Badger friends they intend to kill.  When they wipe us all out, they will probably start on the deer... who can also catch TB from Cows.  The last 3 important announcements were made on the days Parliament was going into recess (that means going on their holidays) .   "A good day to hide bad news".  

All this talk of killing Badgers is making me feel sad so here is a picture from the internet of a happy healthy Badger

I still haven't heard from Mr Eustice about my appointment with him.  Mary did get a letter this week from DEFRA using all the old false arguments to justify the Kill Cull. Such as the Irish experience. In fact the reason the number of TB cases reduced that time in Ireland was because of an outbreak of Foot and Mouth and Cattle movements were stopped, so Cows were not being moved from Farm to Farm spreading disease.  The letter went on about the difficulty in making a vaccine for cows.  They cannot have very good scientists working for them as they have been trying to make a vaccine for around ten years and still haven't worked out how to do it.  Here are some scientists who look quite clever; perhaps DEFRA might give them a call:

The letter from The Correspondence Team at DEFRA also talked about its review of its Bovine TB Strategy by Sir Charles Godfray.  Thinking that Mary would be impressed by this, they forgot that she knows that the Review by Sir Godfray does NOT include a review of the Badger KiIl Cull.  Here is a picture of Charles Godfray:

He does look like quite a sensible man but if his terms of reference don't include the question of Killing Badgers then I don't suppose he will be of much help to us.  I wonder why he is a Sir?  Perhaps because he is so clever and wise.  I wonder if they might make Mary or me a Sir one day, for being Doggedly persistent.  I doubt it...  because we are not part of The Establishment- or a celebrity.  Oh Well.

Time to cuddle up with my Cubs and give them some love and attention.  They were so excited to be filmed; did you see them on the video? We are hoping that one day we will be on the Big Screen and be huge; that might make Politicians and Civil Servants be nicer to us.

Night Night,🐾🐾🐾

Betty 

Mr Gove's Nemesis

Hello Fans, Betty Badger Here!

After my exciting visit to Woman's Hour I returned to DEFRA next day and was thrilled to find that Hupeople had heard me talking on the radio.  Some lovely Hupeople called Annie, Dave and John came to visit to tell me that they had heard me on the wireless and I had inspired them to work to get the Badger Kill Cull stopped.  So Betty Badger DID touch some Hupeople's hearts.  Another Human came visiting too after hearing me and wished me luck. This is the picture the BBC took of Mary.  It is VERY flattering:

A DEFRA Human came to chat and told me that he had a plant based diet (like me- except for the worms and bees and a very odd hedgehog) and he thought that the DEFRA policy was insane and utterly immoral.  Well, we all know that.

As a result of all the excitement after Woman's Hour I decided to ride the wave of enthusiasm and I began by writing to Tena for sponsorship for a big surprise I am planning for DEFRA.  It's a secret....Thay have passed my request to their Marketing Department so fingers crossed.

I also wrote to The Daily Mail and the PM programme to see if they would like to feature the Intrepid Betty Badger.  My headline was going to be "Betty Badger- Michael Gove's Nemesis". I wasn't really sure what a Nemesis was but Mary found it for me and says it means "The inescapable agent of someone's downfall".  That sounds just right.  If Mr Gove does not have the courage to stop the unscientific, cruel and expensive Badger Kill Cull then I want to be his Nemesis.  

I didn't get a reply from The Daily Mail.  Perhaps that might have something to do with the fact that Mr Gove's Mate Sarah Vine is a journalist there. Here is a picture of Mr Gove and his Mate Sarah Vine and their Dog:

I went back to DEFRA again today and I met Dominic Dyer of The Badger Trust along with a Human from the Born Free Foundation.  They were going in to a meeting about Wildlife Crime.  The security Human wouldn't let the third Human in because he had his bicycle with  him so I looked after it for him so he could go into the meeting.  So Badgers have their uses- other than for shaving brushes..  

I thought about riding the bike as I would probably be the first Badger ever to ride a bicycle but it was one of those clever Brompton bikes which folds up really small and I couldn't work out how to make it grow.

Today a was very very hot for a Badger as we have such thick hair and an Angel saved my life bringing me a bottle of cool water which was the best drink I have ever had.   It came from a highland Spring.

Mary tells me that I might be valuable.  Apparently in the next Kill Cull Mr Gove will pay people £50 for each Badger they kill.  So that is the price on my babies' heads- oh, and mine.  I did read that some wicked Humen will pay up to £700 for a live Badger so they can do Badger Baiting, which is putting a Badger in a ring with Dogs and getting them to fight to the death.  That would be a dreadful way to be killed.  Mary has a video here which she took one night which shows that we can be very brave when attacked by  Dogs....

All those young Foxes are dead now, killed by the local gamekeeper in the last couple of weeks.  That is sad because we were becoming the best of friends. 

We still haven't heard about our appointment with Mr Eustice who is a Minister of State at DEFRA.  Mary thinks he hasn't replied because I made a mistake and called him Mr Useless.  I am sorry if that upset him.... but I bet that's what they called him at school.

This week a very brave Human called Tom Langton is taking the Government to Court over the Badger Kill Cull. Apparently a court is a big old building full of wise old Hueople who make decisions which can profoundly affect the lives of Hupeople (and Badgers this week).  This is Tom Langton:

I do hope he manages to stop the Killing.  If  you believe in a God or Goddess then please pray for his success.  I might go there on Thursday once I have finished being interviewed by 38 Degrees outside DEFRA.  Betty is such a Busy Badger...

Time to get the Cubs up and the sett cleared out  and new hay collected.  Although lots of Animals are really struggling with no rain, at least we have lots of fresh hay to make our setts sweet smelling and dry.  Please put out some water for the Birds and Animals and save some lives.

Night Night .  

Betty Badger 🐾🐾🐾

Betty on Woman's Hour!!!

Hello Badger Lovers.  Betty Badger here.  I have had the most exciting week that I want to share with my friends.  On Wednesday I went to the BBC Broadcasting House and met the national treasure Jenni Murray in her radio studio.  Broadcasting House is a huge building in the middle of London Town.

It was a long hot journey as all the trains were late because and of what Mary says is incompetence.  I think its something like constipation.  We had to stand all the way and Mary had to carry me.  Then we caught the silver tube worm which was so hot that Hupeople were sweaty and smelly.

Jenni Murray was doing a programme about Huwomen Activists.  Apparently me and Mary are Activists.  I took the family (who Mary carried too) and here are the  all cubs on a chair in what they call The Green Room- it wan't green at all but mostly red and grey:

In the Green Room they have drinks but, sadly, no peanuts.  Badgers don't drink coffee so we had sparkling water instead and it made our snouts tickle.

There were lots of Huwomen Activists waiting to go on the Woman's Hour show and I took pictures of them all.  These Huwomen Melanie Eusebe and Rosamund Urwin are fighting to get more Females on the boards of companies:

Then I met a Huwoman from Japan, Shiori Ito, who has been brave about rape in Japan. Talking about these things has made her unpopular at home and Hupeople have been unkind to her:

The next Huwoman was called Alison Bechdel who has written a book and a Play about her life.  It is called Fun House which I thought would be jolly but it is about a funeral parlour and difficulties in having one's identity accepted.  Apparently the play is brilliant and almost sold out.  I really liked Alison because she drew some pictures of me; she is very clever.  I think she said that she comes from Lesbos, or perhaps it was America- I am not really sure:

Alison and Shiori had companions who told me they were publicists. I think I need a publicist, although Mary is probably one of those for me.  I also met a bubbly young Huwoman called Grace but my camera didn't work. so I have stolen picture from the internet:

Grace used a really rude word that begins with a W which is not allowed on Radio 4 but they didn't shout at her..

And then, and then..... Jenni Murray came to see us and we were so excited to meet her and she was so pleased to meet all us Activists and she specially liked my cubs.  Sadly I was so overwhelmed by meeting Jenni, the Queen of Radio 4, that rather than taking picture of her I took a picture of myself as my camera was the wrong way round. So, I have had to steal another picture :

Jenni Murray is a lovely funny kind lady.  We had to go into a a big box called a Studio and put earphones on our heads and behave ourselves. Unfortunately Mary and I were tired after our very long hot journey and we were nervous and didn't give of our best so were quite down-hearted.  Dianne the Producer told us we were OK. One question my mate Jenni asked was when we would stop protesting outside DEFRA which is very hard for us to answer because we don't want to stop until they stop shooting my Badger friends.  They have already killed 70,000

However, I must tell you a bit of a secret which Mary may be a bit annoyed with me for sharing.  Well when Huwomen get a bit older they can suffer from something called Bladder Weakness.  Now, Hupeople can also suffer from Hay Fever which makes them sneeze.  Mary says that Bladder Weakness and Hay Fever are a disastrous combination and she is not sure if she can manage another summer after this one without being embarrassed.  I said that she might send a message to Tena who make things called Lady Pants for women of Mary's age.  They might sponsor her so that she doesn't have to worry any more.  Imagine their advertising promotion : "Tena saves Betty Badger's Blushes". 

Please don't tell Mary I told you about this...

After seeing Jenni and her friends me and Mary did an unscheduled visit to DEFRA which confused Hupeople because we went on Wednesday rather than Thursday.  Our visit made us feel a bit happier because we met our lovely friends and supporters at DEFRA and the Home Office who said things like, "Go Betty".  "Keep it up Betty", "We're on your side Betty."

I am going to stop now because Mary and I have to go on a Mission of Mercy.  Today we found a Badger who had been run over by a car going too fast.  Mary saw that the Badger was a mother who was still feeding her cubs. So we are going out to find the cubs and give them food and water because we don't want them to die too.  Mary is a bit nervous walking out in the dark in the field on her own because she does have a habit of falling down rabbit holes.  Also the local land owners don't like her because she loves animals and they like killing them.  So they call Mary an Animal Rights Activist.  Well, if she wasn't an Activist she wouldn't have met Jenni and all the other wonderful Huwomen at the BBC, so she doesn't mind too much.

By the way, I haven't told you half of our stories yet, because we also went to DEFRA on Thursday and some of our fans came to see us after hearing us on Woman's Hour.  And so much more....

Night Night,

Betty Badger, Media Star.🐾🐾

Mr Gove Goes Underground

Hello Hupeople.  Betty Badger here. Two jolly visits to DEFRA to report on.

I eventually persuaded Mary to leave her bed of despair and go down to DEFRA last Thursday.  I met some very Strange Characters including some very odd trees. 

All the strange Hupeople seemed to be out.   One Human would not go away and kept trying to buy my cubs. He told me that I could make a fortune if I sold my little ones.  I told him that I was not going to sell my babies even if he offered me lots of money.    I had to watch him carefully because I know had his eye on Bud.

Then a very old Human start to wave and dance and sing at me from across the street.  I danced for him too.

Then another Human came along wearing short leg coverings and he had drawings on his legs. He kept taking pictures of the DEFRA Building.  I told him the would be in trouble, but he carried on anyway.  Then the Security Hupeople came and told him to stop but he wouldn't..  The Police came along in big wheeled boxes so I moved quickly to the front of the building where I met lots of my old friends. 

The best thing about the day was meeting Hucubs.  Two little girl cubs fell in love with me and cuddled me and wanted to take me home.  They held onto my legs and didn't want to leave me.  A lovely male cub played hide and seek around the black metal bollards.  We had such fun.

I have been to Marsham Street again today and really enjoyed myself meeting the DEFRA , Home Office and other staff.  I stayed at the front this week to avoid the strange Hupeople who congregate at the back. Lots said "Hello Betty" and I heard that some are reading my blog.  Thank you!  Everyone was very friendly and one Huwoman offered to get me some water because I was very hot. 

But I am very sad because I have not seen Mr Gove for 4 weeks, since he announced that he going to extend the Badger Kill Cull to areas where Badgers are not infected with TB. I really miss his jolly Hello and wave.

I am sure he is hiding from Mary because she is quite angry.  She has been planning ways to dispose of him.  She decided against contract killing because she couldn't afford the fee, but now she has another plan.  Mary knows a lot about plants and in her garden she has a herb called Wolfbane or Monkshood; it is very poisonous.... We all know how much Mr Gove likes to buy his lunch at itsu and Mary thought she might get a job in the itsu close to DEFRA and slip a bit of Monskshood into his sushi.  That is quite fiendish.  But, of course she wouldn't do anything cruel like that because she wouldn't hurt any living thing.  Instead she is cursing him with boils.....  on his bottom....Only joking. 

Mary has turned her anger into action and this week has written to a lot of people including The Times, her MP Grant Schnapps, and DEFRA.  She did ask to see Mr Gove a while back but he is too busy with plastic bottles and elephant tusks so yesterday she asked instead to see the farming minister who I think is called George Useless.   If he says no she will be very annoyed.  These MP Humen are, after all, public servants and should remember that. 

While at DEFRA getting my photo taken and generally hanging  around Mary explained to me some of the decisions DEFRA has been making this year .  I found all this hard to understand so I am sorry if you find it hard too.  Anyway, DEFRA undertook a Consultation into extending the Badger Kill Cull into Low Risk Areas (LRAs) Anyone interested could write and tell DEFRA what they thought by 15th April.  Lots of very clever Hupeople replied, 832 in total, including The British Veterinary Association, The Zoological Society,The Badger Trust, Born Free,.. ,,,oh, and Mary.  

Well this document was published a couple of weeks ago:

Summary of responses to the consultation on proposals to introduce licensed badger control to prevent the spread of bovine tuberculosis in the Low Risk Area (England) May 2018

and it says very clearly that the majority of respondents were opposed to an extension of the Badger Cull to low risk areas.  Despite the overwhelming opposition from more than 800 people (including Mary) who took the time to write to DEFRA, they have decided to kill my Badger kin in areas they call  LRA "hot spots".  It is more complicated than that and I am worried that you will be bored by now so read up on it if you are interested.  

Mary has taught me the word ANALOGY so I will give an analogy for the decision which the Marsham Street Hupeople will relate to:

Do you remember that DEFRA staff moved recently to a new sett at 2 Marsham Street which they share with other government departments.  Well, Imagine that Mr Gove  and a few of his colleagues (Cows) had the Ebola virus but hadn't been tested properly so they weren't sure if they had it.  So, even though that there was a chance that they might possibly have Ebola which they could pass on to ALL the staff in Marsham Street, such as those in the Home Office (Badgers), Homes England (Deer), Communities and Local Government (Goats),  Ministry of Justice (Cats), Passport service (Pigs), etc. Obviously these staff might then pass it on to other staff in other departments they are visiting and lots of Hupeople  might then get ill and die.

I am only a stupid Badger, but as I see it, a sensible decision would be to leave the DEFRA people where they are so they don't infect all the other departments' staff.  But no.  What DEFRA decides to do is to move Mr Gove and his staff anyway and if just one of the Home Office staff catches Ebola from Mr Gove &Co, DEFRA kill all the Home office staff.  But they don't kill the staff in the other departments even though the DEFRA staff are mixing with them daily and infecting them.  So all the Home Office staff are now shot dead, even though only one of them had any disease.  And meanwhile the DEFRA staff and all the other staff they have infected go wandering around the country spreading Ebola where ever they go. 

This is exactly what DEFRA has decided to do, despite overwhelming rational opposition, and has even said this in the document it published on the day Parliament went into recess in May.  It says:

 "The government's view remains that enabling badger control in the LRA where disease in badgers is linked with infected herds is a rational extension of the TB strategy to eradicate bovine TB".  

"Badger control" means killing Badgers.  I really don't think this is logical at all. What DEFRA is saying is that where Cows brought into an area infect a healthy Badger then all the Badgers in that area have to die.  Meanwhile, farmers spread infected Cow Poo on the fields- (they call it slurry and not Poo ) and carry it on their boots and on their tyres to farm sales and abattoirs. Also infected Cows whose disease hasn't shown up yet and all the other animals they have infected, (Pigs, Goats, Cats, Deer ) can carry on spreading infection around the country.  

I do hope you understood that.  I am so tired at trying to understand it that I will have to have a lie down in my sett now. 

Just one more thing: It is good to finish on a happy thought. You know how much Badgers like eating Worms, well Mary made a lunch of two slices of bread with Peanut butter and Marmite in between; she called it a sandwich.  Anyway, it was one of the best things I have ever tasted- almost better than Worms even.

Night Night,  Betty 🐾🐾