Friday 14 January 2011

Fox Shoots Man

Spotted by Captain Ranty (at Yahoo News):

A wounded fox shot its would be killer in Belarus by pulling the trigger on the hunter's gun as the pair scuffled after the man tried to finish the animal off with the butt of the rifle, media said Thursday.

The unnamed hunter, who had approached the fox after wounding it from a distance, was in hospital with a leg wound, while the fox made its escape, media said, citing prosecutors from the Grodno region.

"The animal fiercely resisted and in the struggle accidentally pulled the trigger with its paw," one prosecutor was quoted as saying.


Having built up to this linguistic crescendo (of course "the animal resisted", it was about to be killed; who says it was "accidental"; and with which appendage other than its paw would the animal pull the trigger?), the article concludes with possibly the most exquisite sentence to grace an animal-attacks-human story:

Fox-hunting is popular in the picturesque farming region of northwestern Belarus which borders Poland.

10 comments:

Captain Ranty said...

I thought you would like it :)

My favourite line was also "...and in the struggle accidentally pulled the trigger...".

I assumed they said that to save the rozzers hunting down the fox and charging him with attempted murder. Now that we are assured there was no malice aforethought, everything is okay.

CR.

Pavlov's Cat said...

I'm with the Captain

accidentally pulled the trigger with its paw,

Yeah right, that was no accident, just needed to get up close and personal.

Although the thing that amused me was.

as the pair scuffled

wv. bitle

Woman on a Raft said...

These Polish foxes, comin' over our border, shootin' our farmers...

View from the Solent said...

Well, if the bounders will go shooting foxes instead of using dogs ...

dearieme said...

I'm not entirely sure I believe this yarn.

James Higham said...

They're not called foxes for nothing.

JuliaM said...

I'm with dearieme - I suspect the consumption of large amounts of vodka and a bit of a boo-boo by his hunting companion.

Or possibly his wife caught him hunting for a rather different quarry?

Richard Allen said...

What an absolutely fantastic story. How long till we get the following headline from the Express

KILLER EU FOXES HEADING FOR BRITAIN

Span Ows said...

A brush with death.

Thoughts that it was accidental soon faded as the fox was heard to exclaim "Next time it won't be just your leg" as it scampered away.

Mark Wadsworth said...

You're right, the story is probably made up, but it was fun while it lasted.