Today I attended a Badger Crime Training Workshop. As far as I know, badgers commit fewer crimes than the squirrels who plunder the peanuts ad the bird food. Not that I mind. In fact, they are rather adorable and entertain Wuji for hours. As I sit in the conservatory now, he is watching through the window as one balances on the bird feeder.
When they see Wuji they flick their tails ferociously and are less keen to come on the table. I say that, but it doesn't stop them. Instead of running down the fence to the table though, they run across the roof. It's transparent and Wuji watches their clattering silhouettes. Then they leap to the table, take a nut and return the same way.
The badgers. So. I discovered that badgers, though a high priority for protection, are still killed and tortured by people. It stuns me. People kill them with spades and keep the videos on their phones. You can go on badger digging holidays in Ireland or Continental Europe. It is a bizarre and horrible mystery to me.
The law is.... complicated. There is a Badger Act, but it has limits. So, you need to know the Animal Welfare Act and the Wildlife legislation and the Hunting laws too.
There were maybe ten of us. All these people who love badgers. I felt a little disloyal as I like foxes and crows and hares and squirrels and rats and dunnocks and robins and so on just as much. I am sure these people also like them, but their passion is for the Brock.
This day of training followed two days of conferencing about animals and I have a feeling that while I have spent some twenty-five hours focused on critters with people who share many of the values I hold that I could do with some time with the critters rather than the people talking about them.
That said, the conference was about animals speaking about humans and how we can try to understand. No. It was not about animal communicators. It was about linguistics and politics and cultural studies and, yes, ethics.
Even so, the animals themselves did not get to say a great deal.
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