The Wild Justice Badger e-petition is heading for 60,000 signatures. I always think that’s a more useful milestone than 50,000. At forty-something thousand, people think you’re halfway there, and at 50,000 you are, and then at fifty-something thousand it still feels as if you are ‘about halfway’. But at 60,001 there are ‘only’ 39,999 signatures remaining to be reached for the first 100,000 signatures.
Well, that’s how I look at it.
Yesterday DEFRA responded to our petition having reached 10,000 signatures. At first glance, it is a more considered response than usual. That is probably because a week today Wild Justice is in court appealing the decision that we should not be granted permission for judicial review of free shooting of Badgers.
Derbyshire Dales still leads the list and has passed the 400 signatures milestone. Last Thursday there were 10 constituencies with over 200 signatures now there are 14. And it’s still a very Conservative, English and rural list:
Derbyshire Dales, Sarah Dines MP, 402 signatures
High Peak, Robert Largan MP, 325 signatures
Stroud, Siobhan Baillie MP, 270 signatures
West Dorset, Chris Loder MP, 268 signatures
Sheffield Hallam, Olivia Blake MP, 244 signatures
Wells, James Heappey MP, 242 signatures
Torridge and West Devon, Geoffrey Cox MP, 240 signatures
Isle of Wight, Bob Seely MP, 219 signatures
Bristol West, Thangam Debbonaire MP, 216 signatures
Mid Derbyshire, Pauline Latham MP, 213 signatures
Amber Valley, Nigel Mills MP, 213 signatures
Brighton Pavilion, Caroline Lucas MP, 213 signatures
St Ives, Derek Thomas MP, 208 signatures
Somerton and Frome, David Warburton MP, 206 signatures
Please have a look at this petition and sign it if you can – thank you!
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My MP is on that list. Perhaps he’ll now think it’s safe to come off the fence. I’ve asked him often enough.
And while I’m at it, I see the old lie has been trotted out in the Government’s response. ‘The level of accuracy of controlled shooting continued to compare favourably with the range of outcomes when other control activities, currently accepted by society, have been assessed.’ That statement contains two glaring errors:
1: Compares favourably with what? The shooting or trapping of other mammals? There is no published study which supports that statement. Foxes, rabbits, squirrels, you name it, there are no data. It might be humane, it might not, but as there are no objective studies so it is a false statement.
2. And if there are no data, what exactly is it that has been ‘accepted by society’? Have you ever been asked ‘Are you content with the competence of the shooters and trappers of mammals operating in the UK?’ Has anyone you know? No, I though not. Again, it’s meaningless.
63336 at 7.58am 14th Oct. Good number!