Since August of 2016, Mary Barton has persistently fought for an end to the culls that have killed almost 250,000 British badgers to date.
When she’s in costume, Mary is known to those in the SW1 district as Betty Badger.
Every Thursday, she stands in a badger suit outside the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on Marsham Street.
Though Betty Badger may be just shy of her tenth birthday, Mary is in her seventies, and despite “terrible chilblains in the Winter, and fainting spells in the 32 degree summer heat”, she’s never missed a Thursday.
In its election manifesto, Labour pledged to “end the ineffective badger cull”.
On the 13th of October, following a petition 102,458 signatures strong, Parliament met to debate a motion to “end the Badger cull and adopt other approaches to bovine TB control”, and every Labour MP who spoke in the debate voiced their hearty agreement.
One would think that, at least relatively speaking, it’s a pretty good time to be an English badger.
But Mary is only allowing herself “a little bit of hope”.
Though the current Government appears minded to end the culls and bring in the vaccines that Mary is confident would be far more effective in the fight against bovine TB, she is no stranger to political promises, and the ‘one step forwards, two steps back’ nature of British policy making.
In the past, Mary has met with senior ministers to discuss the badger issue, and now she feels “jaundiced” by the political system, which she once trusted to be “fair, and reasonable”.
She says that she met with Michael Gove in his capacity as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and that he told her that vaccinations would be ready by the end of the year.
Mere months after the meeting, he was reshuffled.
Next, Mary met with George Eustice, the new DEFRA Secretary, and he was unsympathetic.
Mary says he told her: “I don’t care what the science says, this is my policy and I am not going to change it.”
She left DEFRA in tears.
But the following Thursday, she was back, writing on her blog (which, charmingly, is written from the point of view of Betty the badger): “we will not be beaten by an arrogant, supercilious, wicked cruel Human who lacks integrity, compassion and only cares about getting votes.”
So this time around, when a senior Labour figure told her: “don’t worry Mary – if we get in, you won’t have to be Betty anymore”, she knew to take this with a generous pinch of salt.
And indeed, after the election, she says that same prominent figure apologised to her, saying: “Sorry Mary, there’s nothing I can do. My hands are tied – Steve Reed has already made a deal with the farmers.”
After a decade’s worth of ministerial reshuffling, foot shuffling, and thumb twiddling, it is not surprising that Mary has thought about hanging up the badger suit and giving in.
But with that same tenacity that badgers are known for, Mary says: “if I have to die in post, I will. I made a vow to myself that I wouldn’t stop until the Government stop killing badgers. And when I give my word, I don’t back off.”
DEFRA were contacted for comment.
Featured image credit: Mary Barton
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