Betty's Party at DEFRA

I was so excited on Wednesday night that I just couldn't sleep.  You know how it is when you invite friends to a party and you are worried that no one will arrive?  I thought that my worst fear was realised when I arrived at DEFRA on Thursday morning and I was all alone except for all the Cubs who came with me.  The Police had arranged some fencing outside DEFRA to keep my friends under control.  Here I am being kept under control and feeling very alone...

If you look carefully, you can see my 3 Cubs on the left of the fence, and you can see ginger Bud in the middle.  That picture was taken by a lovely young Human called Joe. 

Then more Humen and Huwomen and Badgers began to arrive.   Here are some pictures:

 They brought lots of banners with them

Some of the Hupeople dressed up like Badgers

Some of them made lots of noise and used horns to make their voices louder.  One Human blew a whistle but I didn't like that much because it hurt my ears. I thought the Humans were singing but I was told it was called chanting and they said things like, "Mr Gove, Stop the Cull" and "NFU Shame on You" .

I was told that Mr Gove and DEFRA are in the pockets of the NFU- the National Farmers union- and Mr Gove "dances to their tune"!  I have a bit of difficulty with that concept as I just cannot picture Mr Gove and DEFRA dancing in  farmers' pockets, but I was told that this is a "Metaphor".  What people are saying is that the rich farmers of the NFU can influence Mr Gove and the Government because they give the Conservatory Government lots of money.  Mr Gove was at the NFU conference on the day before our little get-together, so it does make me think...  Oh and the new Huwoman who has just become the leader of the NFU  hates Badgers, so I am very worried about that. This is Minette Batters the new NFU Huwoman

She farms Cows and kills them for meat then blames Badgers when they get diseases. I must keep an eye open for her...

I don't really understand politics because Badgers don't have politics.  We live together in big setts underground with lots of generations.  We get born, we mate, we dig holes, we have Cubs and we eat Worms and peanuts (and other stuff I won't mention...) .

In the country where we live, we have 2 main Political groups.  The Conservatories and the Labours. The Conservatories don't seem to like Animals very much and a lot of them like hunting Foxes, and killing Pheasants and Badgers.  But we must mention the Blue Badger group who are Conservatories who do want the Badger Cull to stop. The Labours seem to like Animals a bit more and their leader is Jeremy who is a vegetarian and doesn't even eat worms! He is opposed to vivisection, foie gras, fur farming, hunting, the Badger Cull and wild Animals in circuses. He sounds like a nice Human. This is Mr Corbyn:

Although I am not a political Badger I am very happy that the Labour Animal Rights Group came to our get-together.  They had a very nice sign:

Mr Gove did come to his DEFRA office when we were having our protest and he did say hello to us all.  Some people shouted at him when he was leaving on his way to Chequers to talk about BREXIT.  He got chased to his car by a Badger, but not me because I was busy looking after my Cubs.  

We had four very clever speakers who talked about the wrongness of the Badger Cull.   Two of them were from The Badger Trust, Peter and Dominic,  and a Human called Tom who is taking legal action against the Government, and a Labour Party Animal loving Human called Padraig.  

I am so glad that we had our get-together to show how much Hupeople care about the Badger folk.  Although it was a very cold day lots of good Hupeople came to support Betty and her cubs and I have made lots of new friends. 

Badgers:

Hupeople:  I really want to thank all the lovely people for coming, including Tom and Jane and Nikki and Heather and Frank and Chris and Marge and all the others who were so lovely and kind and brave. 

I was going to go back to DEFRA on Thursday but it looks as if we will be snowed in, so I will probably stay at home in the sett and keep the Cubs warm and well fed.

That's all for now.  Night night, Betty 🐾🐾

PS if you don't want your photo here please writ e comment in the place below and I will take you out 

Betty Badger has a Broken Heart

This birth of my 3 cubs, Blanche, Brian and Bud should have been such a happy time but a very black cloud has descended over our sett.  Mr Gove, who I thought was my friend, has announced that he might be killing Badgers all over the Country.  

What will happen to my babies?  Will they all be dead in the Autumn?  My Badger heart is breaking. 

My Huwoman friend Mary has been raging a lot and crying too because she and her friends have been trying to tell Mr Gove and  DEFRA that Badgers are not responsible for bovine TB.  Even if they were, why not vaccinate us rather than slaughter us? 

If you love Badgers and British wildlife, please try to come to DEFRA on Thursday 22nd Feb and stand up for science and compassion.

Bye Bye.

🐾🐾

Come and Join Betty and her Babies on 22nd February

I am thrilled to tell you that I now have 3 new cubs.  They were born just after I got back from DEFRA last Thursday. I was really worried that they might pop out in my excitement when Mr Gove waved and said Hello again, or that they might be born in the Tubeworm - that would have caused quite a fuss- but we held on until I got back to my sett.

Huwoman Mary made me have what she called a shower before the cubs popped out.  A shower is like a waterfall without the cliff, or a hard rain shower that comes from a tiny cloud.  Mary said that it wouldn't be good for my cubs to be lying on my chest and suckling with all the London pollution on my fur. This is a shower:

My new cubs are Brian, Blanche and Buddha. 

Of course Brian is named after their father Brian who was killed by Mr Gove in the Badger Kill Cull.  I still miss my mate so much.....  Then Blanche is named after the Government Human with the bright white shirt and the sweet smile.  Buddha, Bud for short, is named after the kind DEFRA man who always stops and chats and I think is a Buddhist because he is wise and compassionate. 

Bud is turning ginger so his life might be a little bit more challenging.  Here is another picture of a ginger Badger:

I might have named one of my cubs after Mr Gove too if he had stopped the Kill Cull. Mr Gove has quite a reputation as an Animal lover amongst his Conservatory friends.  Here is a cartoon from a Conservatory magazine.  

Interestingly there are no Badgers in this picture. I do still wonder if Mr Gove knows anything about Badgers- he still has not replied to our letters.  Mary has searched on the internet and there is no picture of him meeting a Badger.   This is a picture of Mr Gove and a Dog. Mr Gove, this Dog is around the same size as a Badger but we are black and white..

My cubs need feeding so I won't say much more now but there are a few important things that I must say before I go.

Firstly, I want to say a big thank you to the lovely DEFRA Human who gave me an Apple when I was feeling a bit weak on Thursday.  That was so kind.  The Apple was called Braeburn but I don't know what the Human was called.

Secondly, I will not be at DEFRA this Thursday as I have to feed the cubs.   Bu.t I will be back next week, the 22nd for a very special day:

I want to invite you and all your friends to come to my get-together outside DEFRA on Thursday 22nd  February from 12 until 2.  

Since Mr Gove and DEFRA have not taken any real notice of me as I stand there month after month, I want to show them that Betty Badger has Hupeople friends who care about her and her Badger friends. These lovely Hupeople don't want thousands and thousands of Badgers killed this Autumn with the traps and the flashbang sticks when they are innocent and just want to live their lives quietly underground eating worms.... and peanuts.  The Badgerman Dominic whom I met a couple of weeks ago has turned our photo into an event:

Gosh!  We even have a couple of speakers...  I would be too excited to sleep, although the cubs are already keeping me awake.

See you soon,

Lots of Badger Love,

From Betty, Blanche, Brian and Bud

🐾🐾🐾🐾,

Betty invites her friends to come and play

I will be having my cubs soon so might have to have a week off from visiting Mr Gove and my DEFRA chums. I wonder if he will miss me....

My Huwoman friend had to go to a funeral on Thursday so she came with me to London Town on Tuesday.  Now that surprised and confused all my friends at DEFRA. Mr Gove was very busy coming and going in his silent Green black car and he had 2 chums with him.  They all waved and smiled at me- 3 TIMES!!! 

I dropped a letter from Huwoman Mary into Mr Gove's office asking why he had not replied to her letters of November and early January.  She asked him why he was continuing with the Cull when we Badgers are not to blame for Cows getting Bovine TB. She asked him how many of the 20,000 Badgers killed in seven weeks in Autumn had been tested to see if they had bTB.  I am only a Badger but I think these are important questions that need to be answered.

Sometimes i think Mr Gove prefers Elephants to Badgers as he spends a lot of time worrying about them.   Apparently they are HUGE and they could easily squash a Badger underfoot without noticing. The ones in the UK are in Prison while the ones in Africa and India are free but are shot like us Badgers by Horrible Humen who want to steal their horns.  These are Elephants:

I just found this picture of Mr Gove with some Cows which will have to do because I cannot find him with any Elephants.

I hope by now he realises that Badgers are not responsible for bovine TB in Cows and don't deserve to die...  

I did mention in my last BLog that I had a nice surprise this week when I met a Badger Lover celled Dominic Dyer outside DEFRA. He is the head Human of an organisation called The Badger Trust. He was very surprised to see a Badger in the middle of London Town.  He took a picture:

We agreed that it would be nice for Betty to have some company one day so:

You are all invited to join Betty and other Badger lovers outside DEFRA on Thursday 22nd February.  From around 12 until we get tired- probably around 2 or 3

I will have had my cubs by then and will try to bring one or two of them with me.  It would be lovely to see you all.

Finally I want to mention that I had a lovely chat with my Human with the white shirt .  He works for the Government , but does not kill Badgers.  I will name one of my cubs after him.  I also had a chat with another of my favourite Humen- the one who told me that the rain doesn't; need to affect me- apart from getting me wet of course...  Anyway, his favourite film is The Shawshank Redemption and in that a Human Prisoner wants a library of Books for the other Prisoners, so he wrote a letter very singe week for 6 years and eventually succeeded in getting  Books and lots of them.


So I have decided that I will be like that man and although I can't write well, I will go to DEFRA every week until we stop the Badger Kill Cull.  Badgers in the Wild normally live 6 years, so I hope that I don't have to go to DEFRA every week until I die......

By the way,  Badgers don't read books.  Apparently some Hupeople don't read books either.  For those of you who don't know, these are books:

They are made of trees and contain patterns in ink called letters and words which tell stories like what my blog has, but not on a computer.  We all like stories don't we?

Hoping to get to DEFRA on Thursday and I must remember not to say "Boo" to anyone.  A man was looking at his phone this week and nearly walked in to me so I said "Boo".  He was quite shocked and  gave me a look that suggested that he definitely did not want to be Betty Badger's friend... 

Night night,  Betty  🐾🐾

Betty meets The Blue Badger

I Betty Badger, have three journeys to tell you about....... but one thing at a time.

My Huwoman friend Mary and I were definitely not looking forward to last week's trip to DEFRA because the weather was due to be very rainy and indeed it was.  

But I had to go because The Blue Badger promised to meet me outside DEFRA and I was so excited to meet her.  I have never met a Blue Badger before.  I have heard of Ginger Badgers.  My Brian (RIP)'s mother was quite orange and on a sunny day Brian  had a ginger hue.  This s a picture of Brian's parents

It was as if the world was against our meeting though; not only the torrents, but the enemies of Badger folk were out to catch us.  Fifty yards away from DEFRA I saw this:

And then, just around the corner we saw this:

I was very nervous indeed as we were sure that DEFRA had finally had enough of Betty and her friends. Mary said she would protect me so we snuck around the vans to wait in our usual place.  It really was as wet as wet can be and my paws got very cold. But one of my regular friends came to talk to me and told me about how you can just accept things for what they are and look forward to better days. Mary told me about her Huwoman friend Helen (RIP) who said that standing in the rain reminded her that she was alive.  I was very well aware that I was alive, and wet, and I started looking forward to being on my way home underground on the silver tubeworm which is always snug and warm.  

Because it was so wet people didn't want to stop and talk and Mr Gove hid under a huge red umbrella pretending not to see me....  I don't have a picture of Mr Gove under a red umbrella because that is the wrong colour for a Conservatory, but here he is with a more appropriate umbrella and making a silly face:

Eventually out of the storm came a Huwoman called Lorraine with blonde fur on her head and she told me that she was a Blue Badger.  I have to admit that this was not what I was expecting.  Anyway, she told me that she was a member of an organisation called Blue Badger which is a group of Conservatories against the Badger Cull.  This is what  their webwords say:

Blue Badger is a member of  Team Badger which is a coalition of national, local and grass roots animal welfare organisations representing millions of compassionate citizens. We reject the government’s policy of badger culling as unsound, unscientific and unacceptable.

That all sounds very sensible to me.  This is their logo :

I think I could draw a better badger than that.  I think it might have mange.  Or perhaps I could model for a new logo. Lorraine took a selfie with me and promised to tweet it.  Lots of people do that but since I don't know what a tweet is, apart from the noise the birds make, I am not sure if that is a good thing but Lorraine likes Badgers, and Elephants, so I can trust her.

On Saturday Huwoman Mary asked if I would like to go to a demonstration with her in a place called Letchworth.  Her friends were protesting against the destruction of The Green Belt.  Badgers don't wear belts so I thought I would stay at home and get ready for the arrival of my cubs which are due soon.  Mary explained that The Green Belt is not for holding up your trousers but is an area of land that Hupeople are not allowed to build setts and factories on but other Creatures such as Badgers and Foxes and Rabbits are allowed to, so they are safe places for Animals to live without too much disturbance. Mary's friend Nikki said that many Badger setts will be destroyed if the builders moved in and Badgers will lose the homes they have lived in for thousands and thousands of years.  Please don't forget that Badgers were here before Hupeople.  

Anyway, I went and had a jolly time with all the Hupeople and made loads of new friends.  These are some pictures they sent:  

This is Heather, Nikki and Me (and Nikki's 2 dogs, which are OK- for dogs):

Then here is Frank holding my hand because I am tired and don't have very good eyesight:

Here are some of the lovely protesters;

And Finally ... Betty and Bryony very tired after a very exciting day out :

Today I went to DEFRA again and met a Human called Dominic who is the head of a club of Badger Lovers called The Badger Trust. He took a selfie too.  And we made some plans..... but I will tell you all about that another time.

Night Night Hupeople

Love,  Betty🐾🐾

Gosh! Mr Gove Goes Green

I, Betty Badger, had a jolly time at DEFRA yesterday.  It didn't rain!  I saw lots of my new friends and Mr Gove said "Gosh!"

I went to West Minster with my cub Bryony and my Huwoman friend Mary. Bryony was so excited to go on the shiny tubeworm underground and to see all the tall human setts called buildings. She was dizzy at their height when she looked up at them.  She was really impressed by this building:

I told her it is called the House of Parliament which is a sett where all the most important Hupeople meet together and shout at each other and make laws.  Laws are rules that Hupeople are supposed to live by such as making it illegal to kill Badgers because we are a protected species.......  

Bryony was quite scared of all the Cars though because, as we all know, Cars and Badgers don't mix well.  Cars are the biggest cause of Badger death- even more that The Kill Cull.  I don't know why Humen have to move so fast.

Mary was very clever because she brought along a camping stool for me.  She said she wanted to look after me because of "my condition" and she did let me and Bryony sit on it for a while.    Here is the evidence:

However I think Mary had an ulterior motive because she soon sat on it herself .  She said her knees were aching.  I think that is because she is getting old and has got fat over Christmas so is putting more weight on her joints. One of the reasons Mary is putting on fat is because  she is secretly eating the peanuts she buys for me.  Perhaps she is turning into a Badger.  Here is Badgers' favourite food - except Worms:

We Badgers like to get fat in The Cold Time because it keeps us going when the worms are so far underground that we cannot eat them.  Many Huwomen go on something called "Diets" in January, the middle of The Cold Time, which is a bit silly because they need to keep warm then.  

Mary thinks that Mr Gove is making a bid to become the Head of The Green Party, which sounds like a lot of fun.  Have you noticed that he has taken to wearing a green Tie? The following picture from the newspaper shows his nice green tie and he is carrying a green drinks container which is also Green, which means that it is kind to the environment.  



I waited for hours while Mr Gove was in DEFRA having important meetings about cups and fish and farm subsidies.  I knew he was there because his quiet black car sat outside with his lovely kind driver in it. Eventually he came out in his green tie and he saw me and Bryony on our new stool and he noticed our sign saying that 19,274 of our Badger friends were killed in the Cull.  He seemed quite surprised by the number, especially when Mary told him that was how many Badgers were killed this Autumn. So he said "Gosh".  Which is a very nice word full of meaning...


The other thing I noticed in London Town was how many people are wearing dead Animal fur on their hats.  

My friend Mary told me that most of them don't realise that the fur is real when they buy the hats because it often says fake fur on the label   The people who sell the hats say it is fake because they know that most Hupeople are kind and don't want to wear Animals’ fur on their heads because they know how much the Foxes and Cats and Dogs and Rabbits and Raccoons (whatever they are) have suffered.  Some Animals are kept imprisoned in cages and their skin is taken off them sometimes when they are still alive. I felt very sick when she told me that.  But some Hupeople are not worried about that.  Someone called Kurt Geiger who makes clothes for rich Huwomen makes these hats with foxes and racoons on them. Here is one of his hats:

Which leads me on to my realisation last week about the real reason behind the Badger Kill.  Remember this picture?  

I bet you didn't know that most shaving brushes are made from Badger fur.  Here are some more examples from The Google Oracle:

The British Government thought it was a really good idea to become the world leader in the production of shaving brushes.  So that the Markets wouldn't catch on to what they were doing, they invented the Cull and said that Badgers had to be killed to stop the spread of disease.  This explains why in the Parliamentary Debate last Spring Mr George Eustice had to admit that none of the thousands of Badgers killed had been tested for Bovine TB. He didn't want anyone to find out the truth that the Badgers did not have the disease.

Of course, what happened then was that all the Humen in the Western World decided to grow beards.  Like these Humen:

So Conservatories have spent Millions and Millions of Pounds on killing Badgers for no good reason.  But we all knew that didn't we.  And there are lots of Badger shaving brushes going cheap and flooding the shaving brush market.  Perhaps they might sell them to Huwomen instead....

One last thing.  I have made some lovely friends outside DEFRA.  Two Humen in particular are very kind and talk to me and say how nice it is to see me.  One of them wears such a bright white shirt that it makes my fur look grubby.  I had to start grooming myself urgently to get up to his standard.  Then I met 3 farmers.  One pretended to shoot me... but one of them said that he protects the Badgers on his farm.  In the end they all gave me a hug and we had a photo taken together and I do hope they will send the picture so that I can show it to you.

I cannot go to DEFRA next Thursday because Mary has an urgent errand but she will try to get me and Bryony there on Wednesday instead.  I know that this will confuse all the lovely people at DEFRA who now expect to see me on Thursday.  Sorry Betty Badger friends.

Time to say Night Night 🐾🐾