A Black And White Issue
Oct 27th, 2007 by Eats Wombats
In the last week there has been a bit of a stink in the British media for and against killing badgers. That’s right, badgers. Not foxes.
Foxhunting, the unspeakable in pursuit of the inedible, as Oscar Wilde called it, is still controversial and highly circumscribed. Badgers, however, are completely protected by law.
The nearest I’ve been to a fox hunt was seeing the enchanting film The Belstone Fox. The fox got away, but before doing so he got the girl. She was even cuter than he was. Not for nothing is a fox called Basil Brush a big star on TV in Britain. He’s a household name in fact — a part of popular culture for a generation. My father and my father-in-law who were about as different as two people could be, unknowingly shared one characteristic: Basil Brush could reduce them both to helpless tears of laughter.
Recently I chanced upon a book designed to help people pass their Life in the UK examination, which is required for obtaining British nationality. It was full of dreary stuff about courts and the workings of parliament and I had little doubt many existing citizens would fail the test. If it was livened up with questions like
Who says BOOM BOOM after telling a joke?
it would be no less useful and a lot more revealing of who intended to integrate, although I gather that’s quite optional these days, and of popular culture to the immigrant.
The badger hasn’t, so far, been as popularly personified nor the focus of much attention from the animal rights stormtroopers. For most people he’s a worthy gent with gravitas and stripes in The Wind in the Willows. Recognisable but never seen alive, on account of his largely nocturnal habits. Protected, not hunted. Part of the green and pleasant landscape.
Now the government’s chief scientist says badgers should be culled — by special “operatives.”
The badger is a carrier of bovine tuberculosis and serves as a reservoir of infection in the countryside. Past experiments on culling have shown, however, that it is not effective in controlling the disease.
So we have the farmers lined up on one side and the badger lovers, many of whom are city dwellers, on the other.
Two things are astounding:
First, that in the middle of the
Gas the badgers! Oh no you don’t!
pantomine the fact that rabbits carry and are vectors for the same disease seems to have been disregarded. It’s hard to believe, but government and scientists have been inexcusably stupid in the past. The most recent outbreak of bovine foot and mouth disease was caused when they chose to ignore warnings about defective pipes at a research center at Pirbright. For the sake of spending 50,000 pounds on replacing old pipes the country later paid tens of millions and could have paid billions (the last outbreak in 2001 cost an estimated 9 billion pounds).
Second, if you are furry and good looking the great British public will go to war on your behalf. I would not be at all surprised if MPs have received more letters about badgers than about going to war in Iraq.
It’s almost entertaining the extent to which politicians are actually afraid of the fluffy badger lobby: 95% of the public, not just card carrying members of the Badger Trust (nice photos), are opposed to culling badgers. An awful lot of people care about the countryside and find the idea of one devoid of badgers unacceptable.
If push should come to shove, farmers are probably more expendible. They are heavily subsidized as it is and everybody’s food bills would go down dramatically if EU farming subsidies were eliminated.
Politicians lost respect and credibility on the subject of agriculture and food when, in one of the most iconic moments in recent UK television history, a government minister John Gummer, fed his daughter a hamburger on television during the time of the BSE crisis, revealing the extent to which they were in the grip of farmers. Subsequently the Food Standards Agency was set up as an independent entity. Now there is criticism that the same government agency is responsible for both funding and regulating the lab at Pirbright.
It will be interesting to see which way the badger TB controversy goes. I favour a scientifically rational outcome and, of course, I would be quite willing to buy only certified badger-friendly beef, or give up British beef, or even become vegetarian. Meanwhile, if badgers would just stand for parliament they’d win by a landslide!
Many people would feel safer with Basil Brush in the White House. It’s a pity he’s not eligible to run.
