This October weather is so unseasonably mild. Temperatures that you would normally associate
with the middle of May have enveloped this part of The Cotswolds.
My Badgers seem to be getting their fill, their body
condition looks superb. They are in the
type of condition that will enable them to withstand the forthcoming winter’s
worst.
The Badger cull has gone on regardless. A meaningless, pointless exercise that can
only result in more impoverished, Badgerless landscapes and will do nothing to
reduce the TB in our cattle herds. An
argument that continues to fall on Defra’s deaf ears.
As I sit up at my Badger sett on constant guard night
after night, I watch Daddy Cool and Mrs Cool with their entirety of their family. A sight that excites and intrigues me with
equal measure. Where deep within the
woodland their behavioural antics are filled with respect, caring and loving
relationships that seem to thrive on togetherness and the wellbeing of each and
every member of the group which is paramount.
I have watched Daddy Cool from the moment his cubs were born, take them
this way and that within the woodland in an ever changing programme of
protection. I have witnessed poachers come
right to the boundaries of the Badger’s woodland and each time of danger Daddy
Cool has gathered his family and withdrew from the situation. He has marched his family away from the danger
by as much as a quarter of a mile in one evening and dug in ferociously by the
end of it.
An unconfrontational patriarch whose presence symbolises
the very word wild, for the British Badger is fundamentally wild to his heart
and graces and honours any woodland habitat that is lucky enough to host
him.
As I watched Daddy Cool and his entirety of his family
saunter amongst the massive beech, oak and ash trees brevetting around for the
fallen beech nuts and woodland mushrooms, I am watching nature that has not
changed for thousands of years, but the devastating acts of the 2013 and 2014
Badger culls has unleashed demons amongst the British Badgers that in some
cases nature will be totally unable to rectify.
The robust, strong hard man of the woodlands needs the kind, tenderness,
caring hospitality that he shows to his family and his environment through
every heartbeat of his life.
Please watch my short film of Daddy Cool and his whole
family enjoying his wild woodland in the manner that nature intended and when
you have watched the film, ask yourself honestly, is raising a gun, setting a
snare or laying poison in any way a just measure, backed by government or
otherwise to treat a British icon?
My old friend, Daddy Cool and Patriarch of his woodlands
will never stand alone. Long live Daddy Cool, Lord Protector of our woodlands.
Daddy Cool with his entire family.
No comments:
Post a Comment