One woman's seven year Vigil against the Badger Cull

An inspirational activist that has fought the badger cull every step of the way

Last Thursday I ventured over to Westminster to meet Betty Badger, an animal rights activist who has stood outside the DEFRA offices every week for seven years calling for the badger cull to end! It was truly inspiring to meet someone who has dedicated so much of their life to fighting for wildlife.

Below are Betty’s own words as she describes her campaigning to date.

I am a very ordinary 69 year old woman, but ordinary people can be moved to do extraordinary things.  If anyone had told me that I would be dressing up as a badger for seven years and hanging around Westminster I would have laughed in their faces.

11 years ago the UK government began killing badgers in the hope that this policy would reduce the incidence of bovine TB in cattle. Thousands of people took to the streets to protest, petitions were signed and letters were written to MPs. Even though the science was shaky that killing badgers would have any impact, the government carried on, and on and on...

The Badger Cull became old news and government ignored the call for a more rational approach to dealing with the disease.  What was an intelligent animal and nature lover to do?  So, in 2017,  I decided to hold a vigil for the badgers being shot and stood outside 10 Downing Street wearing a badger mask and holding a toy badger. I met tourists from all around the world and enjoyed chatting to the security police. Then my local badger group offered me the use of a badger suit, and so Betty Badger was born.

For these last seven years Betty Badger has become a Westminster Institution. Every Thursday she has travelled into London from Hertfordshire. She stands outside the offices of Defra, the government department for environment and farming, and responsible for shooting around a quarter of a million badgers to date. Betty is a friendly badger and simply waves and says hello to everyone who passes. Betty is there to remind people that the shooting of badgers is still going on. Many passers by, including police officers ,think that the killing stopped years ago.

I cannot pretend that it is easy standing in Marsham Street in all weathers. Betty is made of foam and fur and is unbearably hot in summer and is weighed down when it rains.  Although we can be toasty warm in winter, the circulation to my feet has suffered. Verbal and, occasionally, physical abuse is part of the vigil but the Defra Security staff are kind and keep Betty safe. The staff from the Home Office, Defra and other government departments located at 2 Marsham Street are always friendly and wave and call out “Hello Betty”. Occasionally a civil servant will approach me and say “I can’t talk to you because I would get into trouble, but thank you Betty for doing this and please carry on”.

I have met many Ministers over the years and had appointments with Michael Gove and George Eustice to discuss the badger cull.  Sadly, I wasn’t allowed to bring Betty into the office for those meetings, although they had both seen her many times standing outside.... Michael Gove listened carefully but was then reshuffled a few weeks later, while George Eustice seemed arrogant and unyielding.  I approached Therese Coffey but she wasn’t keen to discuss the badger cull.

In the first few years I sat on the wall outside with my badger family but I made the mistake of approaching George Eustice to ask him why he was still killing badgers and not vaccinating cattle, the more scientific way of dealing with the scourge of bovine TB.  Following that polite interaction I was banned from sitting on the wall, and so we stand.....

How long can Betty carry on? I vowed not to give up until the killing of badgers stopped. Every year when the number of tens of thousands of badger deaths is announced I am standing inside betty weeping copious tears for the thousands of badgers shot or injured. Some days I am so tired and downhearted that I want to give up, but Betty and I have to carry on until the cruelty and irrationality of culling badgers has ended.

When I saw the Labour manifesto I  thought that I could hang up my badger suit, but it looks as if Betty will have at least another eighteen months standing around Westminster, by which time I will be 71 years old...or dead from exposure or heat stroke.

Sadly Betty Badger looks set to continue her vigil as a Freedom of Information Request to Natural England and provided to Protect the Wild shows just how many more badgers may die in this ‘ineffective’ (according to the Labour Party manifesto) cull - unless the government row back and take the morally correct decision to revoke the bloody Supplementary Badger Cull licences issued by NE in mid-May…

To save anyone having to count - as many as 28000 more healthy badgers could die this year!

As we have said numerous times, Labour must not betray England’s badgers and must not betray the people who voted them into power hoping for something better…

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At Protect the Wild we are campaigning against badger persecution and the ongoing badger cull.

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