"But people love badgers."

"This is not a campaign against some kind of airborne creepy-crawly, spreading disease as it feeds on the blood of poor, innocent cows. This is Old Brock they are trying to kill, the black-and-white gentleman of the forest, who adds dignity and substance to children’s bedtime stories, from The Wind In The Willows to Fantastic Mr Fox."

I know The Wind In The Willows and Fantastic Mr Fox, but who's Old Brock?

"'Old Brock,' as the badger is affectionately known to country folk, is a familiar part of Britain’s rural scene."

Wikipedia has an incredibly long "List of fictional badgers." These include:

Brock Blueheart... in the graphic novel, Fables...
Brock the Badger in Yours Ever, Sam Pig By Alison Uttley...
Detective Inspector Archie LeBrock, in... Grandville by Bryan Talbot...
Lord Brocktree... in Brian Jacques's Redwall series....
Old Brock... in Watership Down....
Tommy Brock from The Tale of Mr. Tod

Wikipedia links to a website called "Living With Environmental Change": "The role of badgers in our culture may muddy policy decisions":

Social attitudes to badgers shaped by literature, the media and even heraldry may be clouding debate about their contribution to spreading tuberculosis to cattle....

There are dignified depictions of badgers in heraldry, and an early version of Mr Badger even crops up in an Anglo Saxon poetic riddle from the 11th century, as a noble creature defending its family against attack.  More recent heroic appearances in children’s literature are common, with The Wind in the Willows probably the best known.

So we are familiar with the idea of badgers displaying characteristics that we like to think of as both human and laudable, such as strength, bravery and loyalty, while also being mysterious, nocturnal creatures that are symbolic of the natural world and British countryside.

I support the fight against TB and the vermin that spread it, but I will nevertheless promote the cultural character, the loveable badger. Here, Project Gutenberg has The Tale of Mr. Tod available in its entirety, with all the illustrations. I hope it doesn't further erode whatever foundation in reality you've maintained in your lifetime of exposure to fiction. 

[Mr. Bouncer] sat in the sun, and conversed cordially with Tommy Brock, who was passing through the wood with a sack and a little spud which he used for digging, and some mole traps. He complained bitterly about the scarcity of pheasants' eggs, and accused Mr. Tod of poaching them. And the otters had cleared off all the frogs while he was asleep in winter—"I have not had a good square meal for a fortnight, I am living on pig-nuts. I shall have to turn vegetarian and eat my own tail!" said Tommy Brock.

It was not much of a joke, but it tickled old Mr. Bouncer; because Tommy Brock was so fat and stumpy and grinning.

ADDED: My advice to animals: Get some stripes. People will fixate on your cuteness and let you overrun the place. It's not just badgers. Think of chipmunks. We have chipmunks all over the place here in Madison (where, despite our fictional character, Bucky Badger, we don't have badgers). Without stripes, they'd be more or less rats, and the level of infestation would horrify us.