This week came the good news that the cull of the Welsh badgers has been halted. Hurrah! There has been a real buzz about the announcement and what a relief for the badgers. We must congratulate the Badger Trust for their dedicated efforts in making sure the fairest decision was made. What an achievement!
A big thank you to all of you who took part in our Get Sett for Badgers action through our website. You sent masses of emails to Welsh Assembly Government Rural Affairs Minister Elin Jones AM. Well done also to Brian May CBE for raising the profile of this issue and campaigning so ardently on behalf of the badgers, as he has done for our seals and snaring campaigns.
Evidence has shown that culling badgers is unlikely to result in a long-term decrease in TB in cattle, which is beneficial to the farmers as well, as the focus has now shifted to vaccinations and monitoring cattle movement. Thankfully the Court of Appeal has taken this evidence into account and reflected the views of animal lovers across the country.
It’s fantastic to know that we have played a part in making the world safer for our badger friends. I remember on last year’s BBC Autumnwatch Chris and Kate showed some footage of a badger sleeping, and you could hear him/her snoring! Oblivious to the world looking on and how much people care, they’re just like us: OneKind. Through our actions we can make the lives of amazing animals better or worse, and this week has been a triumph.
Our colleague Jo, who has left for a volunteering gap year in the USA, blogged four months ago on the proposed cull. It’s lovely to be able to come full circle with good news in this blog, that the badgers are safe. I’ll finish with the quote she gave us from Mr Badger in The Wind in the Willows;
"People come--they stay for a while, they flourish, they build--and they go. It is their way. But we remain. There were badgers here, I've been told, long before that same city ever came to be. And now there are badgers here again. We are an enduring lot, and we may move out for a time, but we wait, and are patient, and back we come. And so it will ever be."