(In homage to William Blake, a compassionate man who would have strongly
opposed a badger cull – and his magnificent poem ‘The Tyger’.)
Badger, badger blazing white
In the woodlands of the night,
What indifferent hand or eye
Would take your precious liberty?
In what pseudo-science lies
‘Proof’ that all your kind should die
On what grounds dare they acquire
The ‘right’ to slay you in your byre?
Wiping out your ancient part
In our landscape, like the hart
Blaming you for some great feat
The rise of TB. How they cheat!
Now see the politicians feign,
Twist statistics, smear your name
Hoodwink farmers, make them gasp
The blatant truth, they rasp and rasp
Intensive farming through the years
Sick animals, worn down by fears
Did He who made us want to see
You trapped and shot at for a fee?
Badger, badger, blazing white
In the woodlands of the night
What trigger-happy hand or eye
Dare take your sacred liberty?
In the woodlands of the night,
What indifferent hand or eye
Would take your precious liberty?
In what pseudo-science lies
‘Proof’ that all your kind should die
On what grounds dare they acquire
The ‘right’ to slay you in your byre?
Wiping out your ancient part
In our landscape, like the hart
Blaming you for some great feat
The rise of TB. How they cheat!
Now see the politicians feign,
Twist statistics, smear your name
Hoodwink farmers, make them gasp
The blatant truth, they rasp and rasp
Intensive farming through the years
Sick animals, worn down by fears
Did He who made us want to see
You trapped and shot at for a fee?
Badger, badger, blazing white
In the woodlands of the night
What trigger-happy hand or eye
Dare take your sacred liberty?
©Heidi Stephenson
Montage: Claire Palmer