No, no, no, no, no—I had intended to take the weekend off. I had met, you see, my goal—or very nearly so. It had taken a year for this blog to reach 10,000 hits. It had taken six months to reach (almost) 20,000 hits. Given that there are no busty blondes with bouncing boobies in this respectable venture, that’s not bad.
Well, there’s no rest for the weary, as the adage has it. Susan dropped in, electronically, to tell me that my blog is being reposted in Democratic Underground. Great—checked that out, came back negative, but did come upon the following headline:
Far-Right Extremists Chased Through London by Women Dressed as Badgers
OK, as much as some part of my brain screamed ‘NO,’ another part was reflexively hitting whatever nerve rules the right index finger, which responded with a click. So here, Dear Readers, are the comely but still respectable women dressed as badgers….
Well, I’m from Wisconsin, which is, as you know, the Badger State. In fact, we even have a song about it, called “If you want to be a Badger, just come along with me.” I give you the video below, for anyone unfamiliar with the song, and for anyone who wants to be nostalgic for student days long past….
OK, let’s be orderly. First question: why are women dressed as badgers (not Badgers) chasing far-right extremists down the street? Well, reading the article gave me the first clue—the women were protesting the badger cull planned by the British government to reduce the incidence of bovine tuberculosis.
Badger cull?
Badgers, Wikipedia informed me, spread widely at night, and their urine contains high concentrations of the bacteria that cause tuberculosis…but wait, I give you Wikipedia itself:
Once an animal has contracted bTB, the disease spreads to other animals in the same group or herd when healthy animals come into contact with exhalations or excretions from infected ones. Modern cow housing arrangements, which have good ventilation, make this a relatively slow process in cattle but in older-style cow housing or in badger setts, it can spread more rapidly. Badgers range widely at night and one infected badger can spread bTB over a long distance. Badgers mark their territory with urine, which can contain a very high proportion of bTB bacteria. According to the RSPCA, the infection rate among badgers is 4-6%.
Wow—this is turning into an interesting Sunday morning. Who knew that cows abide in “modern cow housing arrangements?” My impression, from a childhood very dimly visible in the rearview mirror, is that they lived in pens—or was it stalls? Anyway, modern cows are apparently living in arrangements with infinity pools and wood cabinets and stainless-steel countered kitchens. (Perhaps more precisely termed “food preparation activity centers….”) Great to know….
Moving digressively forward, the British government is intending to go and cull—which I presume means kill—badgers. But the British—perhaps being pre-Wisconsinites, or maybe even latent Wisconsinites—have a special love of badgers. In fact, well, here’s Wikipedia again on the subject:Parliament responded by passing the Badgers Act 1973, which made it an offence to attempt to kill, take, injure badgers or interfere with their setts without a licence. These laws are now enshrined in the Protection of Badgers Act 1992.
Right—trust the British to act firmly and timely (sorry, but isn’t “timely” already an adverb? Why do I have to say, “in a timely manner?”) in an emergency. And also, of course, to take to the streets in defense of their badgers. Anyone can see that. As can you, by watching the second video.
OK—so we’ve got that taken care off. Now why were the badger protesters chasing right-wing extremists down the streets?
The badger protesters had encountered another group of protesters, from the British National Party and the English Defence League—do I need to tell who those guys are? So the good British ladies, their blood boiling on benefit of badgers, gave chase—their second finest hour!
Well, this Badger (not badger) has the answer, which I derived from reading Wikipedia….
Although vaccination is a recognised means to prevent the spread of the disease without killing wildlife, cattle that had been vaccinated would technically fail legally mandatory tuberculin tests, and therefore could not be declared officially tuberculosis-free, which is required by a 1964 European Economic Community directive.[7] Given that there is as yet no bovine tuberculosis vaccine for cattle that does not interfere with the tuberculin tests, such vaccination is prohibited under EU law.
Guys? There’s a vaccine for cattle against tuberculosis, but giving it would mean that the cows would violate a “directive” meant to achieve the same thing as the vaccine? So now you’re gonna kill a third of the badgers? Go to the damn European Economic Community and get the “directive” redirected, or dedirected / undirected / disdirected.
Well, I started out laughing at the wonderful inanity of it all, but now I’m mad. Dammed mad. Arise, Badgers, badgerphiliacs, animals lovers everywhere! Send this post everywhere! Spread the news. Get Bucky’s message out!
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| Hands off my bros, boys! |
