The Big Badger Bash of 2012

I have managed to catch a few of the SpringWatch and AutumnWatch over the years and it was always fascinating to see the presenters interaction with the badgers. However this SpringWatch may be the last time badgers will be featured as come the autumn this first of the two trial badger culls will commence. 

A veritable army of Elma Fudds’ will descend into these cull areas for a night-time gun fest.

Who would have thought that the badger a protected species after a long battle to uplift it from its terrible past of badger baiting and abuse. 

It will now feature in a brand new blood sport of ‘Night Time Badger Shooting’; one can only assume that in this war against the badger the countryside army will be made up of Agriculture Students, Young Farmer Club members, Terrier-men (or Countrymen as they are now called) and of course people who are members of the Shotgun Conservation Club (SCC).

In the past SCC members were looking at wild goats in Cheddar or the wild boar in the Forest of Dean for possible new conservation shooting projects, but now with this badger cull in Gloucestershire and away days on Exmoor the Mecca of the blood sports killing fields.

However come the autumn AutumnWatch will be like watching wildlife in a parallel universe where presenters were so keen to show foxes, deer and badgers together with all the other diversity of wildlife in our areas of outstanding natural beauty.

Now we may see the badgers that were featured on SpringWatch now being shot on AutumnWatch and the pressure to class the fox as a pest as an aid to repeal the hunting act.

It is a great shame that this small snippet of time remaining for enjoying the local wildlife will not last much longer as this animal hostile Government puts in place the framework to undertake a mass cull of Badgers, and against all the best scientific evidence in a futile and absurd attempt to curb TB in cattle.

If we consider the view of most of the newly elected MPs into this parliament, which are in the main Career Conservatives or Tory supporting Liberals. Most will support a badger cull when presented with ‘cherry picked’ evidence; and should the Government get there way we may see next year the BBC SpringWatch program being replaced by HuntWatch, where local hunts explain their tally of ‘accidental’ kills for the season and choose the best hounds of the pack. This will be a sad day for our wildlife as culling, hunting and shooting are expanded and the countryside treated rather like a fairground attraction – stack them up and butcher them down!

Let Get Angry This Year!

Following on from the parade of horses and hounds celebrating both the Boxing Day and New Year meets with all the splendour of their magnificently turned out horses and tinsel clad riders so regally fit for a chocolate box lid setting. One could have been mistaken for walking into the set of Downton Abbey or a Emily Brontë novel in the making.

However any attempt to refocus the thoughts at this time of the year, such as the Archbishop of Canterbury’s message was firmly hounded down by the West Countries MP’s, mainly Conservative but with the odd rumblings from the few collaborating Lib Dem MP’s.

Much was made of the comments by hunting minster Jim Piace with a renewed pledge to repeal this bad law. But what concerns me more is the Badger Cull scheduled in some yet unselected locations, as soon as the police become available after the London Olympic games are over. The noises being made from the countryside Constables are that they are up for it and will deal with any animal rights extremists that attempt to hinder any cull zones.

Well as someone who has in over forty years driving has only picked up two speeding tickets and never been arrested or questioned by the police for any wrong doings. I feel this is all about to change as a middle aged and I suppose middle class resident of this country I and my wife are on a collision course with the establishment and in particular the countryside constabularies. They never found any resources to quell the rampant illegal hunting across their two counties and now they are in full readiness to fully support the NFU to ensure this Bloody Badger Cull is carried out.

Its about twenty years ago that the environmental campaigner Swampy swung into action around Cyst Honiton as he and his friends perched high in the trees in an attempt to stop the construction of the new A30 trunk road into Exeter. They did fail but the well spoken Swampy did bring to our attention the environment impact that road schemes have and remember back in those days you could pop into any pub or restaurant and smoke joyously away irrespective of other peoples health and views.

What is now required is the amassing of the ageing extremists of yesteryear, veterans from the Battle of the Bean Fields, Greenham Common, Ban the Bomb and apartheid as all the petitions have been signed and presented, all the letter writing to MPs have been delivered and ignored and there is no other alternative but to take direct action to stop this bloody unscientific cull in its tracks.

And this direct action will bring people, ordinary honest people into conflict with the police who seem no longer accountable to the very people they are suppose to serve and protect. Seemly able to find the resources and then jump to the tune of the many countryside pressure groups awash with campaign reserves to seek changes so far removed from our basic wishes.

It will be the badger today, the fox tomorrow and the squirrel the next day; there seems no end of the list of wildlife mammals that are under the conservation of the double barrow shotgun!