To be out there and sharing a cause felt good...

This post is exclusively about the Badger Cull and the Wounded Badger Patrol that myself and my daughter walked with the other night in Somerset.
Both myself and my youngest daughter have been getting very upset and passionate about the Badger Cull, the more we hear, the less it makes sense and feels so very wrong, a great injustice to the Britain's only bear and oldest native species.
We decided that as it was half term and she was on holiday, I would book some time off and we would travel down to one of the Cull zones to participate in one of the night walks.
I spent a small fortune kitting her out in waterproofs, boots, trousers, coat, socks and food. I did find a tin that uses a chemical reaction to heat its contents to near boiling and they had coffee, so I bought half a dozen of those to take with us.
The night before and the forecast was for gale force winds coming in from the South West. The rain was torrential and the wind was horrific and it was appearing touch and go as to whether we should or shouldn't go but as day broke, the weather cleared and was bright and sunny with showers. We made it down to Somerset in good time and parked up and met with the walkers.
What a genuinely caring, gentle and nice group they are. They were from all walks of life, farmers, teachers, a child minder and several self employed people that are sacrificing a wage to save the lives of Britain's Badgers, it was humbling and heartening to meet and talk with these very normal and kind people.
My daughter conducted interviews as she intends to write a blog to submit to the Huffington Post on the stories behind the people and the diversity of backgrounds and why they are all there. She is a little star anyway and was an immediate friend to many of them, she is vivacious and a great talker but unusually, also a good listener.
The walk was amazing, pitch dark with a sky that was incredible, stars and galaxies framed by trees, Nature's portrait. It was breath taking to stand beneath a sky so full of pinpoints, away from the light pollution, the vivid and ethereal night sky that I had forgotten about. It had been a source of inspiration to my teenage poet self and I remembered why. We had rain showers and walked through mud and puddles but the chat and the willingness of our new friends to share their experiences with us was wonderful. They did say that on the nights they don't walk they miss it, it has become part of what they do and who they are and it wasn't lost on me, I have already looked for night hikes in my local area as it was simply incredible to experience nature at a time when I am normally preparing for bed.
To be out there and sharing a cause felt good, it was almost a validation, I am helping at long last, not sitting there behind Paypal but contributing time and effort. I know that not everyone lives with in driving distance and I know that all support, however it comes, is welcomed by the activists on the ground.

We didn't see any badgers but did see the tracks of badger runs. We all marched along the footpaths, chatting and laughing, all carrying torches, all wearing hi vis jackets. Tromping through small streams, fields and paths, all the while the endless talk of strangers becoming friends. We all had questions and the questions led to stories and the all the stories tended to end up in "why?"
"Why is this happening?"
"Why are they doing this?"
"Why doesn't someone stop this?"

The interesting thing, is that this has strengthened my resolve. Meeting other people that are actively involved in trying to stop the cull by spending their spare time treading the footpaths, walking many miles into the nights in all weathers, is inspiring, I want to do my bit to halt the cull. My daughter said it was the best of nights and I am not one to disagree with her, we have already made provisional plans to get down to the Gloucestershire cull zone on Saturday night and hopefully will make it down there a few more times before the cull ends on Dec 18th.

On another interesting note, I see the National Trust have voted against vaccinating badgers. Sorry, let me rephrase, they voted TO vaccinate badgers and the Chair overruled the the legitimate vote.

Here is a list of the Supermarkets that don't support the cull, here are the good guys:

Waitrose
Mark and Spencer
Co-op

Here are the Supermarkets that do support the cull, bad guys:

Asda
Lidl
Morrisons
Tesco
Sainsburys

I already buy all my meat from the local butcher and buy my milk from Waitrose and M&S. If we had a local Co-op, I would certainly shop there as well. The more people that show solidarity for the shops that do give the farmers a fairer deal as well as opposing the cull, deserve all the support they can get.

Things are either right or wrong and my head and heart pull in different directions but the simple reality is that you are either a person with morals and beliefs or you are prepared to compromise yourself knowing that every compromise will eat a little part of your soul until you are compromised. I am sick and hurting at every new and revolting development, this isn't the World I wanted for my children, it isn't the Country I wanted for myself, I can see my hopes draining away replaced by my fears. We have an environment minister that doesn't believe in man made global warming and wants to kill the wildlife in the UK. We have a PM that is intent on hunting foxes and his pals have invented an organisation called "Federation of Welsh Farmers' Packs" that has drafted a report that was widely covered by the National press that made all kinds of claims to start a debate on Fox hunting. The FWFP is actually run by the London based Countryside Alliance, nothing to do with Wales and incredibly have the ear of the PM. How much do you think it will cost to look into the viability of fox hunting whilst cutting public services because some tosspot on a horse wants to chase a small four legged animal with a pack of dogs, in what appears to me to be a cowardly, bullying sport.

This is my point, we all know this is wrong and while David Cameron is so intent on pushing through his personal sport, against the will of the electorate, spending our money to make the "evidence" fit his agenda, my aged neighbour Edna, the old lady that served Britain in WW2 and lost her fiancee, part of a Lancaster Bomber crew killed on a raid over Germany, lives in fear of the cold, doesn't have the care she should have since services have been cut and standards have fallen. Let's hunt foxes, kill badgers and build railways while the generation that kept us free, starve and freeze.
Churchill would turn in his grave.