Help “Protect the Puffs” with the Protego Foundation’s New Campaign Against Badger Culling

Every fall, thousands of badgers are killed in the United Kingdom as part of what is known as a badger cull. The Protego Foundation, a charity inspired by the wizarding world that fights for animal rights, is now urging Harry Potter fans to join its Protect the Puffs campaign against the mass slaughter of badgers in the UK.

Badgers have been found to be infected with bovine tuberculosis (bTB), an infectious disease that kills thousands of cattle every year, and despite a lack of evidence, many still believe they are transmitting the disease to cattle. Badger culling takes place due to the belief that it will help reduce the spread of bTB in cattle.

These badgers are often put through slow and painful deaths, despite the fact that government-funded badger vaccination programs are being carried out to control the spread of the disease.

Badgers are fiercely loyal creatures, like the Hufflepuffs they represent, and they will attack an animal three times their size to protect themselves or their family. It is now time for us to protect these intelligent creatures.

The president of the Protego Foundation, Tylor Starr, is urging all Muggles to show their support.

All of us feel a special bond with our wizarding [H]ouse animal, probably none more so than the Hufflepuff’s [sic] love of their badger mascot. We are calling on all Potter fans, regardless of [H]ouse, to join us in defending the Hufflepuff mascot and urging the U.K. government to end this seasonal cruelty to badgers.

Earlier in the year, the UK government pledged to phase out the badger cull, promising to support the vaccination of badgers. Despite this promise, to the horror of many animal and wildlife trusts, more than 70,000 healthy badgers, many of which had been vaccinated, were shot this fall.

This horrific U-turn not only is a cruel act to the innocent animals that are being inhumanely slaughtered but also goes against scientific research that has found that culling does not effectively tackle the disease in cattle.

Erika Wilkinson, Campaign and Outreach Manager for the Protego Foundation, discusses how inhumane the so-called “sport” is.

Badgers are like us in so many ways. They have families, they feel pain and they value their own lives just like us. We have no right to go into their home [sic] and take their lives from them, especially when we have alternatives.

Petitions have been given to the UK Parliament by the Protego Foundation, and it has also designed a limited-edition “Protect the Puffs” pin, with all profits going toward the Badger Trust, which promotes and enhances the welfare and livelihoods of badgers in the UK.

You can help protect your fellow Hufflepuffs by supporting a petition, which can be signed by both UK residents and those living outside the UK.

What will you be doing to show your support for Protect the Puffs? Let us know in the comments.