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  🐾🐾🐾🐾

Betty evicted from Defra

Hello Betty Fans,  After three years me and my family have been evicted from Defra Marsham Street .  My cubs can no longer frolic on the grass and Mary has nowhere to sit. This is how things used to be just a couple of weeks ago:

And now the Marsham Street lawn is devoid of wildlife. 

Worse is that all the security staff who were my friends have been told not to talk to me so I get quite lonely on my Thursday vigil. 

This is what happened last Thursday.  The nice young security Human who asked me to leave said he thought it was something to do with Covid19, which was clearly silly.  Mary said she wouldn't move until the head of security asked her to move.  The head of Security is called Andy and finally came out and she said the security services wanted me to move.  Mary said that was rubbish because the Chief Constable or Inspector or someone else very important had recently said I could stay .  

Mary asked Andy what the real reason was but he wouldn't say.  Perhaps it is no coincidence that Mary challenged George Eustice, the Secretary of State for Killing Badgers (SSKB) two weeks ago.  If you read my last blog you will know Mary had a word with him and asked him why he was killing Badgers and not just vaccinating Cows?  Clearly he didn't like being challenged over his wicked illogical policy.

Anyway, we have moved away from the entrance and are now on the pavement outside which means we are even more obvious to passing Public and Cars and Buses and they wave at us.  But we do miss our Security Staff friends who look very uncomfortable now.  One of them, who will remain nameless, said he was so sorry because I was never any trouble and always kept out of the way of any other protests.  Last year I was called " A magnet for Trouble" but I am just standing and waving and saying hello.

Since I wrote my last Betty Blog George Eustice has announced the killing of around 70,000 of my Badger friends this autumn.  They have already started killing them.  It is so so wrong.  Here is a sign that was found in one area. 

The cry of despair from animal lovers when the announcement of the Kill-Cull was made could probably be heard throughout the universe.  When Mary heard it on the news when she was in bed she screamed so loudly that her cat Rufus shot off the bed as if jet propelled and hid under a piece of bubble wrap which always helps his anxiety

Mary was so upset and sat up all night writing letters to Farming Today, the BBC Today programme, The Times, and everyone else she could think of. After our initial rage we settled into despair.  I took to my sett and Mary took to her bed with her cats. But we are not easily beaten and we will never give up.  There was a question in the House of Parly Ment this week about when the  Kill-Cull would be phased out and it looks as if Defra intends to kill us Badgers for at least ten more years.  So me and Mary will be standing outside Defra when she is very very old. She will be 66 next week and so a pensioner.  I hope one of my cubs will take over from me because I will not live that long.  I will ask young Boris; he will do it for his sister Bryony who was shot 2 years ago

We saw George Eustice this week and he said hello and gave his sickly triumphant smile.  Mary is looking for ways to stop the cull so she went on the Dark Web to look for a contract killer to deal with the SSKB. I have never heard about the Dark Web and thought it meant the really big spider web in the back of her old shed, but Mary explained that the Dark Web is a place where illegal or immoral stuff happens.  Do you know, it would only cost around £15,000 to kill George Eustice.  Mary said she is planning to set up a Go Fund Me page.  I am not sure if she is joking....

Last week at Defra I had company which was a good thing because Mary was in no state to look after me.  The company was called Neill who came with us on the train the silver tube.  He is a vegan and ate vegan cheesecake from Caffe Nero in Marsham Street.  Mary was pleased to have him along for when she was very upset and I was relieved because in our state there was a distinct possibility that we would leave some of the cubs behind. 

Mary and I went to Somerset on Saturday.  In Somerset they used to have lots of Badgers and even the buses are named after us.  Here is a picture to prove it. 

Sadly a lot of the Badgers in Somerset have been killed in the Kill-Cull. Perhaps one day the only Badgers in Somerset will be the drawings on the buses. I had to hide in Mary's bag in  Weston Super Mare in case the wicked Shooters with flash-bang sticks killed me.

We went to there to see Mary's ancient Mother. She is nearly 90 and lives in a house for Hupeople who have mislaid bits of their brains.  She is more like a Badger now because she takes each day as it comes and doesn't want anything except to have nice food and be warm and comfortable. She doesn't want the things Hupeople often want such as clothes and jewels and handbags and cars and ornaments.  She is very happy and healthy and loves to hear about Badgers and Chickens. She is happy because she has found a reason to get up in the morning.  Lots of Hupeople lost that reason during the Covid  Lock Up and became very depressed.  What saved her was finding  a broom, not to fly on but to sweep with.  All day she is found to be sweeping her community home and the garden.  Mary thinks there is some deep significance in this to do with sweeping away and putting right all the sad and dark things in her life.  I think she just enjoys making everything clean and tidy.  We badgers do that; regularly cleaning out our tunnels so they are lovely and fresh.

Two other bits of news, one sad and one happy.  Last week Buttercup the Chicken had to be put to sleep because she had a big growth in her tummy .  Lots of Chickens get those because of all the eggs they grow inside them. Mary's eyes leaked a bit, but she is getting used to Chickens dying because their little bodies are pretty worn out by the time they get rescued by Mary.  

Mary's good news is that the 2 sick Fox Cubs she rescued are now better and have been released into the wild.  They have been released away from Mary's house so that Nick the evil gamekeeper won't shoot them. He shot sixteen foxes the other year including 11 cubs who used to play in Mary's garden. The rescued cubs  have gone into the countryside where there isn't a shoot. 

Mary has one more sick cub to catch and get treated for mange, but we heard rifle shots last night so Nick might have already killed her.  Mary is very worried about me because some Hupeople are killing Badgers in non Kill-Cull areas and then taking them down to the Kill-Cull areas and getting the money for them. She was out looking for me last night when she heard the shots.  

If you are out and about in the countryside in the dawn and dusk you will probably see lots of Deer now.  They are busy mating.  They get so excited and they even run around in daylight so you need to be very careful because they are too aroused to even notice cars.  Over the summer me and Mary have been watching the male Fallow Deer, called Bucks,  grow trees on their heads.  What a waste of energy, not only all the effort of growing them but then carrying them around for months.  And they they bang them together fighting over Does.  The Does just look on bemused.

I will finish my short and quite sad blog showing a video Mary took of me and my Fallow Deer friend Fred when his antler trees were growing.  You should see Fred's antlers now; they are huge. I will keep well out of his way until he loses his antlers and starts behaving sensibly again

Night Night,

Betty. 🐾🐾🐾

The Good, The Bad and the Cuddly. Attenborough, Eustice and Betty

 Hello Fans,

Your favourite Badger has got so much news for you!

On Thursday we had lots of excitement and I nearly bit George Eustice SSKB, which means The Secretary of State for Killing Badgers.  We had just arrived at our Defra spot in Marsham Street and Mary was just about to get me out of my Betty Bag when a familiar face came by.  This is the face:

Mary was a bit slow reacting but then realised it was George Eustice.  He normally avoids us but Extinction Rebellion were blocking his sneaky back entrance so he had to pass by us.  The conversation Between Mary and George went:

Mary: "Oh it's you".

George Eustice: sickly smile.

Mr Eustice didn't stop to talk to Mary so she followed him 

Mary: "Why are you killing Badgers?"

Eustice:  Sickly smile

Mary, now rushing to keep up: "Why are you not vaccinating cattle?

Eustice: "We are"

Mary: "You are not. You are doing an unnecessary vaccine trial. We have the vaccine ready to use now"

Eustice: Sickly smile

Mary: "Why are you not testing cattle properly using the actiphage DIVA test?"

Eustice doesn't reply and dashes through the door to escape a very irate Mary.  Mary burst into tears in rage and frustration at this despicable man.  She was comforted by Bob the security Human, who might get into trouble for not keeping her away from the SSKB.

When Michael Gove was Secretary of State at least he had the courtesy to stop and listen to Mary and even agreed to an appointment with her.  Clearly Mr Eustice has a guilty conscience. Mary has urgently written to him explaining what he needs to do to control bovine TB and she has again asked to see him.

I only wish he'd come along five minutes later after Mary had got me out of my Betty Bag because I would have bit him.   

Mary then got me and my Badger family out of the Betty Bag and set up her signs and then Extinction rebellion came by. banging their drums and I had a lovely dance and they took my picture and video. They were very kind to us and told me I was a wonderful Badger and that cheered us up.  The police were in attendance but the Protesters were all very polite, educated older Hupeople who just want to save the world from stupid destruction.   Apparently 200 of them got arrested .  I am so glad me and Mary weren't put in jail. Here are some rebels:

Another lovely thing happened this Thursday.  Jackie from AAF who loves all animals, just like Mary, came along and joined us in our Thursday Vigil.  She really cheered us up after seeing Mr Eustice. We had a jolly chat for an hour or so and Bob the Security Human joined in.  He is Mary's big friend now and looks after me too.  Jackie talked to everybody and gave them Badger leaflets on a stick so she wouldn't spread disease  The best thing about it was that Jackie took some nice pictures and did a post on the Book of Faces later and said I was legendary.. That made me so happy .  Here are some of her pictures:

It has been a very hard few weeks for me and Mary and other Badger lovers.  Do you remember how the SSKB made an announcement in March that he would be phasing out the Badger Kill-Cull?  Well there was a leak of his proposals for this September's Kill-Cull.  Not only was he planning to double the numbers of Badgers shot but he was increasing by 11 the numbers of areas where Badgers could be killed.  And he was going to kill the Badgers who had been vaccinated.  How stupid and cruel is that?

You can imagine that there was a huge uproar in the Badger world and I know that Mary and many other compassionate Hupeople were so angry and upset that they didn't sleep and their eyes leaked a lot.  At one stage Mary asked if she could come and live with me in my earthy sett because she had enough of the world above ground that was so cruel. I told her I didn't have the energy to make the tunnels big enough for her and she should carry on being a Badger Warrior. 

So Mary spent days writing to those who might help.  She wrote to her MP Grant Shapps, twice, once asking him to arrange an appointment with Eustice; she wrote to the RSPCA; to Prof Rosie Woodroffe who runs the Zoological Society of London; to Lord Krebs; to the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation; to The Times: to The Mirror; to the BBC, Woman's Hour and the PM programme; and many more including Joanna Lumley and Sir David Attenborough

It was interesting to see who replied.  Rosie Woodroffe did; the RSPCA did, and Sir David Attenborough wrote a lovely letter with a pen and even signed it with his own paw saying that he supported Badgers and took every opportunity to speak up for us. 

World Wildlife Fund ignored us (again)- presumably we Badgers aren't sexy enough like Tigers and Elephants to try to save. We didn't hear back from the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation which includes such important Hupeople as Zac Goldsmith and Tracey Crouch who are opposed to the killing.  Oh, and we haven't been offered an appointment with Mr Eustice the SSKB.

We had lots of support from Tom Langton who took  Defra to court to try to stop the killing.  He made sure we got our facts right.  He is very very clever and was able to explain things in simple terms so that a Badger with a small brain could understand. He agreed with Mary that the way forward to stop Cow TB is to test Cows properly before they are moved and vaccinate them.  It is all so simple.  I will really never understand why Defra focuses on us Badgers when we are pretty insignificant in terms of spreading any diseases.  Still, we have always been hated, perhaps because we are wild and free and dig holes...

There is so much else to tell you.  The most important thing is that we left our temporary Downing Street post and went back to Defra at 2 Marsham Street 3 weeks ago now that workers are going back to their offices.   Oh what a welcome we got from all the Security Humen and the staff.  Everyone said, "Welcome Back Betty", "Glad to have you back" "Wonderful to see you."  We were so very touched.  Well I suppose I am a Marsham Street Institution now. It felt like coming home to our second family, although a rather strange family. Some staff didn't look too happy to see us and skulked by. I am pretty sure they were the ones in Defra planning how to kill us. Still,  I am very happy to be back in my London home.  Here it is:

One Huwoman going into Defra thought I was a Skunk.  I explained that I was a Badger and not a smelly Skunk. That's city dwellers for you!  Still, I do have to admit that after a day travelling to London and standing around in the sun Mary does have quite a pungent odour.  We can all be glad that social distancing is in force on public transport. 

Remember I told you last time how Mary caught a fox cub ?  Well she has caught another one and taken it to be treated for mange at a sanctuary.  It got sick and urinated in Mary's car so when the car gets hot that smells pretty bad; still it will keep the rats out of her car because they once got in and ate her seats and seatbelts, getting to the boot where she had her chicken food stored. The first Fox was so ill that it nearly died but it is now so much better and it has a beautiful coat again. I think I told you that Mary lives near the game keeper who kills a lot of wildlife.  He recently shot the cubs' mother; she is the one with the tail like a poodle I showed you pictures of.  So when the cubs are better, Mary will release them to an area where they don't have a game keeper. Here is the second cub in the trap.  Soon it will be free and fairly safe. 

And now an update on the Chickens. Margot and Barbara, refugees from Finsbury Park, are now settling in well. We realised that Margot has a problem with her eyes so Mary gives her lots of care and support.  Barbara has started to revert to her Jungle Fowl origins and rather than going to bed in a coop, she climbs up a tall pear tree to go to sleep.  We watched her climb and thought she would fall down as it is very hard to climb a tree if you haven't got paws or hands. She is a remarkable chicken.  This is Barbara:

I have to make a confession.  I did write this blog more than a week ago and it had lots of news and pictures but then I pressed button and lost it.  That will teach me for showing you a picture last time of me working on Mary's computer.  I have ideas above my species.  Still, I can dig holes better than you....

Some other good news.  Jane Goodhall, from Born Free who is a world expert on Animals, especially Chimpanzees, has written a letter to Boris Johnson along with lots of other important clever Hupeople asking him not to go ahead with the Badger Kill-Cull.  I am sure that Carrie Symonds is having a words with Boris about it too. All this uproar about the irrationality and cruelty of wanting to shoot 65.000 badgers in the next six weeks has certainly delayed the formal announcement, but we know that cruel Hupeople have already put out traps and are shooting us illegally, probably sanctioned by Defra.  We need to tell the Police. As Mary often says, quoting Edmund Burke (reputedly) "All it takes for Evil to thrive is for good Hupeole to do nothing".  It is good that some Hupeople are doing something , but I hope that every Huperson that reads this will contact their MP immediately and tell their friends to do the same and say Vaccinate Cows, and stop killing Badgers because they are innocent.

I have a big Anniversary to celebrate.  It is now three years since I was introduced to Mary by Heather.  Before that, Mary used to hang around Downing Street on her own and when we met, we formed a real bond and agreed to do a Thursday Vigil together.  We have have had so many adventures together as well as supporting each other through the highs and lows of life. Perhaps in my next Blog I might do a blog full of our memories.  Even her cat Lola likes me:

Autumn is coming and it is a busy time for Badgers.  We are collecting lots of lovely dry grass and clearing out our setts ready for winter. We will be snug and warm, and reasonably safe under the ground.   Mary took this picture today of the straw in the field next to her house after the harvest.  She thinks they roll around at night when the Hupeople are asleep in their beds....she's right! 

Summer has gone so quickly. 

I will finish now with a picture of the Chickens because that always cheers us up.   We have had a lot of thunderstorms recently and this is a picture of the Chickens drying off after a thunderstorm. 

Night Night.

Love from Betty 🐾🐾🐾

Betty Badger Zooms and Other Adventures

Hello Fans.  Betty, your favourite Badger, here.

Last night I was involved in a Zoom Webinar.  Am I the first Badger to do that?  Probably, since I am a remarkable Badger at the interface between Wild Life, Humans and Technology.  Mary told me that a Webinar is sitting with people a long way away; you can see them and hear them and talk to them but you can't touch them and, most importantly for a Badger, you can't smell them.  Here I am zooming in the garden:

As you might have guessed, the Webinar was all about Badgers and included some famous Hupeople including Dominic Dyer CEO of the Badger Trust, Craig Fellowes who is a Wildlife Crime Expert, Chris of Mary's local Badger group and Tom Langton who dedicates his life to having legal battles to stop the Badger Kill-Cull,  I like Tom a lot.  He acknowledged how many Badger-loving Hupeople weep every night knowing that Badgers and our Cubs are being shot and injured and killed for no good reason.  Mary had a water coming from her eyes when he said that because it is so true and painful. 

I was allowed to ask a question.  I was so excited.  I asked why Cow vaccination seemed to have been forgotten as a solution to Bovine TB and also Who is really the Force behind the Evil, Cruel, Unscientific and irrational Badger Kill-Cull.  I only wish that some clever investigator would get to the root of it and tell everyone, but they only seem interested in Personalities, Politics and Covid 19

Our Thursday vigil outside Downing Street/Defra continues after 3 years and I am learning more about the Hupeople race.  What strange eccentric individuals hang around Downing Street, me and Mary being the exception when it comes to being odd.

Last week we met a Human who told us to take his picture and warn us about the Lizards who run the world.  He wanted us to put the photo in the internet, so that's what I am doing Now.  Please read his message carefully, because that would make him happy and might save the world...

The next odd Human we met last Thursday wanted to get in the gates to meet Boris; not my friend Boris the Badger, but Boris the Human who pretends to run the country.  We all know that he is incapable of running the country and it is run by Civil Servants, Vested Interests and, even perhaps, Lizards. The Police Officers wouldn't let him in, even though he claimed to have the solution to Covid 19.  It had something to do with running a socially distant music festival.  He promised to return later with "six beautiful women" and they would all wear plastic buckets on their heads.  Mary told me that the plastic buckets he was using were 79 p from B&Q.  Here is a B&Q bucket which is very good value, Mary says:

These buckets are iconic, whatever that means, and some Hupeople use them to pour freezing water over their heads to collect Money for charity...  I will never understand the Hupeople Race....

We also had some more sensible protesters asking for justice for Sri Lanka and saying that the British Government should take the country of of the Commonwealth. They made a lot of noise shouting but they were very angry...

Yesterday when I arrived at Downing Street I was quite shocked to find herds of Hupeople already there taking up my standing position.  I was not a happy Badger, particularity as protests are supposed to happen on the other side of Whitehall and not on my side outside the gates.  Anyway, we set up the family and our signs and generally got in everybody's way while they took their pictures and had the press interview them. 

The first protest was by really old Hupeople wanting the BBC to carry on paying for the TV licences.  You need to pay lots of money to watch pictures in a box called a TV, which is a bit like a Zoom webinar, but you can't talk to the  Hupeople on there.  One of the protesters was a lovely ancient Huwoman with white hair and a hat and more than 75 years old who was a member of the Badger Trust.  Imagine how big a tree would grow in all those years... good job people stop growing fairly young. Imagine what even greater havoc they could cause to the world if they kept on growing even bigger.  Anyway she loved Badgers and supported me.  Here she is:

Another protest group was involved in aviation and wanted the government to support the aviation industry to save their livelihoods and the planes.  Me and Mary are not very keen on planes as they are noisy and destroy the planet but, as Mary says, not as much as eating meat and drinking milk.

Then there was a protest with 38 Degrees with some Nurses and a petition asking for them to have some more money.  Money seems very important to Hupeople.  Here they are:

On the subject of Money I also met a young Human called Sean who had just come back from conference in a place called Dubai  which is on the other side of the world where he met Bill and Melinda Gates.  They met to talk about The Virus, Artificial Intelligence, the end of Cash Money, and State Control.  He explained that when Cash is taken away in a couple of years then the governments can block Hupeople from taking part in society or even buying food as a means of control.  So we would have to be very well behaved or there would be Consequences. I'm not too worried because Badgers don't like Money because you can't eat it, but I think Mary will be stockpiling food in case she upsets too many important Hupeople.  I will share my worms with her as she has always been generous with peanuts and never ever forgets to put them out at night.

  

The Police Officers must have so much fun with all the oddballs who come to see Boris' house.  And then the tourists are starting to come back and loads of them want their picture taken with me.  Betty Badger is famous around the world. Becky the Police Officer is in charge of all the Officers behind the Downing Street gates.  She says "Hello Betty" every week.  She makes sure me and Mary have enough water and are OK when it is very hot.  She is my Friend.

Before I get back to talking about Badgers I must mention the Chickens.... and Foxes  On Saturday Mary took in two refugee Chickens from Finsbury Park which is near London Town.  Even though Chickens are often kept in tiny miserable spaces Alex and Mo, who have a nice garden, felt that their girls, Barbara and Margot, needed somewhere bigger they could wander around in and have adventures.  Mary explained hat hentigration can be difficult and the new girls get bullied until the pecking order is established.  So Mary has to keep them apart until they all make friends.  Barbara has started talking to Snowdrop...

Margot had a big adventure on her third day when she caught a mouse and ran around the garden triumphant with all the other 10 chickens running after her in a sort of scrum.  Unfortunately Margot had never seen a pond before and tried walking on water, which not many creatures can do, and she sank.  Mary saved her life, but Margot lost her mouse.  She has now learned about water and that hens are not ducks and can't swim.  Here are Barbara and Margot.. Margot is the wet one...

I think Mary has gone feral. She caught a Fox the other night.  Do you remember how I said about the Foxes and Cubs had mange? Well Mary is trying to catch them and get them treated so they don't suffer.  Well, she caught a Cub in her trap and took it to a wonderful Huwoman to look after it until it its better.  Then it will be returned to near Mary's garden, which isn't great news for the chickens....  Mary sleeps near the trap so she can hear if she catches another fox, although foxes are very clever and won't fall for the same jam sandwich temptation again.  Here is the Cub in its trap.  It is doing very well:

I said I would return to the Badger Kill-Cull which is very difficult for me and Mary to talk about because it makes us so sad.  The government is already killing us this summer while the cubs are still small and they might shoot 50,000 of us this year. They have already killed 110,000. This is so wrong.  There is no reason to do this except to please farmers who hate us.  Only last week Mary was talking to her local farmer and she old him how I come to her garden and he said we were dreadful because we kill all the Bees!  Perhaps he forgot that all the evil chemicals he sprays all around the fields might also have something to do with killing the Bees.  

Only last week another local farmer filled in the holes of a Badger sett because he was renting out the land to some Hupeople with Horses and didn't want the Horses to fall in the holes.  So my friends would have been suffocated so he could get rent from his land.  Fortunately lovely Human noticed when he was out walking and he saved their lives by unblocking all the holes.  This sort of thing happens every day. 

During our exciting Webinar we learned so much  especially about how the government is using millions of pounds of Money on worthless bTB research which will not help Badgers or Cows, but want to be seen to be doing something.  And while the research goes on they can feel justified to carry on killing us.   Undoubtedly there are powerful Vested Interests at the heart of Defra. We should be vaccinating Cows- simple as that. 

We met a lovely Human called Charlie outside Downing Street.  He loves wildlife and he, like many others, believed the Defra announcement in March saying they were phasing out the Kill-Cull.  They lied.  Who would have thought that a Government would lie so blatantly?  Defra and Natural England fully intend to kill us for the next five years at least and in larger numbers.  The Kill-Cull may well be coming to your local area, if it hasn't already. 

On Thursday we met a journalist called Oliver Milne who works for Daily Mirror.  That is one  newspaper that prints true articles about the Kill-Cull.  He took my picture and asked me to get in touch, which Mary will do on my behalf, although I am getting quite good at this computer stuff.

Thank you to all the wonderful Hupeople who work to save our lives and who cry every night at the wrongness of the killing.  We are so grateful that you care and do your best for us.

I will finish with a happy sunny picture of Mary's Chickens playing "I'm the king of the Castle" on a garden Chair.

Night Night,

Betty

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Betty and BLM

Hello Betty Badger Fans. We have been protesting with BLM and getting very wet and then very hot.  Two weeks ago we got so wet in the rain that Mary washed me and the cubs and hung us on her line to dry.  A bit undignified for a Badger of my mature years....

but the Cubs really enjoyed it. 

BLM means Black Lives Matter.  On that rainy day I stood in my usual place in front of Downing Street and the BLM hupeople crossed over the road to join me.  The Police were not happy about this and told them to go back to the other side of Whitehall. The protesters said that if the Badger could stand outside Downing Street then they could too.  The Police explained that single Badgers or Hupeople are allowed outside Downing Street but not groups.  This is the Law. 

Anyway, because there was a big fuss I told the Police I was happy to go to the other side of Whitehall and the BLMs followed me. We all got so wet and I felt so sorry for the BLMs as their nice flags and clothes got so wet.  Here they are:

And here is some of the writing their friends did on the walls.  I wonder if Mary should do that too... :

And here is some of the family along Whitehall keeping their paws off the ground to keep them dry.

On the next Thursday the weather was 34 degrees, Mary said, which meant it was too hot and our brains began to boil.  The police officers were worried about us and offered us water and help. When we saw the paramedics and emergency ambulance come we thought it was for us, but it was someone inside Downing Street.  We survived, although Mary was pretty smelly by the time we finished.

BLM means Black Lives Matter.  It's about treating Hupeople differently because they are a different colour or race. You might call that racism. There is something called speciesism which means it's OK to make Chickens and Pigs suffer all their lives and then eat them, but not OK to do the same thing to Dogs and Cats. Although in some countries that's OK too. In India Cows are sacred and you can be punished if you hurt one.  Humans are strange. One of Mary's favourite quotations is from Bill Hicks and it says , "Humans are Virus with Shoes" and I think he might be right....

BLM can also means Badgers Lives Matter or we could set up a group called B&WALM  specially for Badgers being shot in the kill-cull meaning Black and White Animals Matter. They do you know....to Badgers and their friends like Mary.  If they didn't, she wouldn't have been going to London on Thursdays for all these years. Of course, Zebras and Skunks could also join...

We have found a way to make our trips to London Town more fun.  Now that we go to Downing Street rather than Defra we get off the silver tube and walk though St James' Park.  Oh what a place, full of water and strange Creatures and plants.  Sadly there are no Badgers still, being so close to Parly Ment, they would probably shoot us anyway.  We have met the big Geese and the Swans and their Cygnets who their parents are teaching to beg.  I think the animals are hungry because there are so few tourists.  A Squirrel ran up Mary's leg looking for food.   Everyone wants to kill Grey Squirrels because they are aliens, but they love Red Squirrels- another example of speciesism and racism.  We Badgers have been in the country since the Ice Age yet, although we are not aliens, the farmers want us all dead..  

Humans play God and decide which Animals are acceptable and which are not.  They used to kill Red Squirrels but now they are regarded as cute and acceptable. As I said last time, if an animal reduces profit then it is vermin.  This is a grey squirrel ; I think they are nice Animals and I only wish I could leap from tree to tree like they do.

The strangest Creatures of all in the park are Pelicans. They were brought to the country in 1664 by a Russian Ambassador and have been there ever since.  They like eating Fish but one of them ate a whole Pigeon while it was still alive and that upset the tourists. . I keep the Cubs well away from the Pelicans, just in case, although I do like a chat with them.  Here is a picture of Pelicans by Dave Pearce, because it is better than Mary's picture.

And here are the swans

Sadly, Rosie the chicken died in spite of the Buffet and Hobnobs that helped her feel better for a few days but the peritonitis got her finally.  I bet if you had to have a baby every day for years your insides would be pretty worn out too. Still, there is some good news on the bird front.  Mr & Mrs Pheasant have had Chicks, so all that mating I showed you a video of was not in vain.  Unfortunately their numbers are dropping by the day as various predators including Fox and Buzzard pick them off.  We still had three in the garden yesterday but who knows what today will bring for the little family...

If we didn't have predators then the world would be overrun with Creatures. Since Hupeople have killed all their own predators Nature invented Viruses to control their numbers, although we need another more serious virus to really get their numbers down to where they stop destroying the Animals and the Planet.  Badgers used to have predators including bears and lions but the Hupeople killed them.  But of course we are not out of control because we are sensible with our mating.  Here is a baby pheasant. 

We saw the Fox this morning with something in its mouth.  We only hope it's not one of the babies:   Here is a video of the incident.

There is another petition to stop the Badger Kill-Cull and there has been something in the Press saying that the government has gone back on its word about phasing out the killing, which they have.  Here is a link to the petition so you can sign it.  Badger Petition

Mary's garden is overrun with Rats because they like eating the Chicken food, so Mary has invested a lot of money in something called a Grandpa's Feeder.  It is not for feeding Grandfathers but for feeding Chickens.  The Chicken stands on the treadle and the lid opens and then they can get to the food.  It takes three weeks to train them to use it.  Personally I think the Rats will get the idea before the Chickens and some of them are heavy enough to make the treadle work. Here is a picture of the new feeder :

....and here is a picture of one of Mary's Rats taken by her friend Andrew  They hang off the feeders and swing from the gutters.  Mary always hopes her visitors don't notice them...

We have met lots of interesting Hupeople in recent weeks. We met Richard who works for the Railways.  He was very friendly and he loves Badgers.  Last Thursday we met two Humen from the RAF in Norfolk.   RAF Humen have wings and can fly.  They are trying to get the public to like them so they had their picture taken with me to show how nice they are.  I think Mary was particularly attracted to one of them....  

I had my picture taken with lots of Human Cubs and I only made one of them cry... I am quite scary to small Children and Dogs.  And a couple of Hupeople tried to give me money, but I said no, because you can't eat money because the coins break your teeth.  Badgers don't need money; we only need love and compassion.

We had a big lovely surprise when Nuclear Human came walking up to me and said hello.  We always meet him and his Dog outside the Conservatory Party Conferences in Birmingham and Man Chester. He is committed like Mary, although some people might describe them as eccentric. Here is his picture from some years ago:

Mary has more poorly hens and she took them to the vet on Friday to have implants put in to stop them laying eggs to give their bodies a break.  Anyway, Mary's metal box on wheels broke down in the vet car park where she and the chickens were stranded for 3 hours.  The chickens were happy enough but Mary got an idea of what their lives might have been like before they were rescued, but only for 3 hours and not for 18 months... Here are Clover and Buttercup waiting patiently for the RAC Human Andrew, who was lovely. 

There re too many Chickens in this Blog this week so, to finish,  I will tell you something interesting about Badgers. Here is a sign I saw at St James Park:

That's how I knew it was a park......  That was a joke!  Apparently all the Hupeople toilets are closed because of the Lock Up and there is Poo everywhere.  Mary says we Badgers are quite Fastidious in our toilet habits.  That big word means we are very concerned about matters of cleanliness.  Well it looks as it the Human species isn't very fastidious.  One Human urinated in Whitehall the other week.  I would never do that... We Badgers dig out latrines at a polite distance from our setts so we don't spoil the nice fresh atmosphere around our home.  We all know where it is so we don't accidentally stumble into it.  Here is a picture.....and our poo is usually green, much nicer than Human poo!

Well clearly I have plumbed the depths when I begin talking about Poo so I had better finish. Mary sends her best wishes to all Badger Lovers.

Night Night, 

Betty 🐾🐾