Faith No More

[smokingboot]

I can barely stand Twitter right now; it's good that the anti-badger cull is trending, but the horror stories are too much for me.

I have occasionally given thought to doing a Phd. Two subjects occur to me; one is the life cycle of belief systems and the other is the History of Cruelty. It is an irony that as the badger cull starts, Cameron readies for war and Westminster Council decides to ban soup kitchens and make sleeping rough illegal. In the same 10 days I have heard of one owl being rescued, three feral cats being given food and shelter, three charges of illicit hunting being pursued, the papers show horrifying photos of a badger shot in the head, and a friend finds a FB page dedicated to gleefully depicting pictures of post-hunt foxes. I cannot even look at these last without triggering an attack of PTSD.

What is happening?

I find myself reeling between a kind of impotent fury and tears like nothing I can describe. We were taught certain principles; humanity, kindness, they count for nothing. And then I look at the kindness of ordinary folk, of all the signatures on the anti-badger cull petition, currently something in the region of 280,000 names, I think of the people out there trying to stop the marksmen last night and tonight, and it is clear that kindness does exist, it is very brave and it is everywhere. And I try to smile.

I want to go to the west country, to join the sabs and fight this on the ground, but I have no transport and nowhere to stay. Over the next two weeks, I may see if I can get a friend to take us down. Today, I am going to a cute place to do some work, and try to to remind myself that England is still worth it.

Is England still worth it?

Comments

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Quite seriously, I really like your idea about apex predators, and support the re-introduction of wolves, lynxes and bears back into the country. Of course, the NFU would hate it, but then current farming practice seems to be about creating a blank land filled nose-to-tail with profit with no care for the health of what they sell. It would also mean that Brits have to take the green and pleasant land more seriously, not as a thing to be used but as a place to live in. Naturally there would be accidents because bad luck happens and people are stupid (Did you ever hear about the visitor to Yellowstone who smeared her child's face with honey so she could take a photo of a bear licking it?) but it would be a working eco-system, healthy and a bit more grounded, a bit more real than today's Britain.

My own thoughts on the badger population is that it needs to be monitored; we need to know how many there really are, because there's a lot of speculation. On the one hand I have heard a lot about badgers multiplying. On the other there are many tales of farmers killing badgers illegally and leaving them on the roadside; no-one is checking these bodies to see if they are starving, poisoned, shot, diseased or run over. If there are truly too many of them, we could trap, neuter, vaccinate and release a percentage of them.

Very sorry to hear about the pusscats. Peculiar badger behaviour too. Despite badgers being tough bastards, cats are usually more trouble than they're worth for Mr Brock :-(