Posted on the 5th June 2013
Today, the government defeated an Opposition Day Debate motion (‘This House believes the badger cull should not go ahead’) by 299 to 250, in what was described as a ‘heavily whipped’ vote. Had MPs been allowed to vote freely, it is expected that the motion would have been carried. An unwhipped Commons vote, following a debate in October 2012, ended with a resounding victory for the anti-cull position (147 to 28).
Just ahead of the debate, Animal Aid and Lush together delivered 20,000 campaign postcards – all collected in Lush stores in the run-up to the local elections – to Oliver Letwin, the Conservative’s Policy Minister. (See photos here.) He has already received tens of thousands of postcards from compassionate Animal Aid supporters.
The Stroud-based green energy supplier, Ecotricity, this week pledged its support to Team Badger and spoke out strongly against the cull. Dale Vince, Ecotricity founder, said: ‘I fully support Team Badger in their efforts in getting this hideous cull stopped. It’s worth considering that if we truly have to virtually wipe out a species like the Badger just to produce milk from cows, then maybe we should be questioning the basis for the dairy industry itself. After all, we don’t need cows milk to live.’
Dale’s words echoed those of Animal Aid’s Kate Fowler, who addressed a 5,000-strong rally in London on Saturday. She said: ‘For the sake of badgers, we must stop this cull, but for the sake of both cows and badgers, we must also boycott milk.’ Kate’s speech can be read here.
Additionally, two new films have been released this week in support of badgers: Can the Carrot was created by The Badger Trust, while Badger Swagger was created by The Artful Badger, and features Brian May, Slash (Guns N Roses), Sir David Attenborough, Shara Nelson (Massive Attack), Sam & The Womp, Sonny Green and Kerry Ellis.
The petition is fast approaching 250,000 signatures.
Despite all this, it looks as though the cull will go ahead.
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