Tuesday, 14 June 2011

"Buzzard attacks Gloucestershire pensioner"

From This Is Gloucestershire:

KEEN walker Nick George was left with blood pouring out of four deep scratches on the top of his head after a vicious attack by a buzzard. The 71-year-old is now warning people to be careful if they venture into the countryside as he did. He said: "If it attacked me, it could attack anybody."

... Jemima Parry-Jones, of the International Centre for Birds of Prey, in Newent, said buzzards and other birds such as tawny owls occasionally attacked people to protect their young.

She said: "When any animal has a baby, it is liable to be defensive." Miss Parry-Jones said people should be particularly vigilant during June and July. She added: "If you wear a hat, you won't have a problem."


Spotter's Badge: Angry People In Local Newspapers

9 comments:

Mummylonglegs said...

I am most particular when it comes to dead mammals attacking me.

Police say a man was carrying a dead weasel when he burst into an apartment and assaulted a man in Washington state.

The victim asked, "Why are you carrying a weasel?" Police said the attacker answered, "It's not a weasel, it's a marten," then punched him in the nose and fled.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fn%2Fa%2F2011%2F06%2F08%2Fnational%2Fa120610D36.DTL

Mummy x

dearieme said...

"If you wear a hat, you won't have a problem." Except that your driving will become dangerous, obviously.

James Higham said...

Ah, now this is vital news. We haven't had the buzzards for quite some time.

Well ... in fact ... ever.

View from the Solent said...

He said: "If it attacked me, it could attack anybody."

To me, that implies that the guy is mad, bad, and dangerous to know.

Mark Wadsworth said...

ML, I wouldn't know whether to hate the guy for being a burglar or laud him for pedantry.

D, depends what kind of hat.

JH, I've linked to a few "birds attacking humans" stories before. But I didn't set up a 'birds' tag so I can't find them on the spur.

VFTS, that did puzzle me, do pensioners automatically assume that wild birds will afford them more respect than other younger humans?

Mark Wadsworth said...

JH, update, I've added a 'birds' tag, and we did have buzzard attacks a while ago.

dearieme said...

"D, depends what kind of hat." Not exactly. All hats correlate with bad driving but different styles of hat are associated with different styles of bad driving.

Driving badly is a risk factor for wearing a hat.

Mark Wadsworth said...

D, speaking from experience, is there a correlation between the type of hat you were wearing and the size or type of animal you ran down?

stuartogrady1985 said...

There's only one solution, legislation!

Ban all birds!