The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

Why it's never a good idea to poke a Badger..
08:29 Mar 14 2006
Times Read: 645








By Nicola McGann, BBC News Online, Birmingham



A late night encounter with a badger outside his Evesham home seemed harmless at first to Michael Fitzgerald. But within minutes he was savagely attacked, leaving him with horrific injuries to his arm where his flesh was torn away and in need of skin grafts. Mr Fitzgerald is recovering at home after going through what he has described as "some kind of hell".



On Friday night he was woken by a noise coming from his garage which he immediately thought was burglars. When he opened the electronic garage door to investigate, he was confronted by what he thought was a harmless badger.



Mr Fitzgerald, a wildlife photographer who was also involved in setting up the BBC's Countryfile programme, said he had never seen a badger so close before and called for his wife to get a camera.



Within minutes he was left in agony as the badger slowly approached, then attacked him, latching on to his arm and tearing his flesh away.



"I never envisaged I would be seeing my own insides," he said. "When you actually see your tendons, muscles and nerves, it looks like wire hanging out.



His razor blade teeth were around my arm and I tried to shake him off and he fell to the floor. I ran inside and he followed me and bit my leg and then grabbed my arm again. I managed to throw it away again and get it outside the house."



In shock, Mr Fitzgerald was taken to Worcester Royal Infirmary by ambulance and he was then transferred to Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham where he was treated by specialist surgeons.



Mr Fitzgerald had to have an operation for two skin grafts on his arm and one on his leg. He has also had stitches to wounds he received. Surgeons say it could take up to two months before his arm begins to heal.



"The house is still spattered with blood and there's a bit of arm flesh on the front door. The whole thing has been traumatic," he said. "I have two cocker spaniels at home which were thankfully in bed when this happened otherwise I don't think they would be alive. Everything I have read about badgers says these animals avoid human contact and in normal circumstances would be harmless."



The National Federation of Badger Groups (NFBG) has advised people against the domestication of badgers. It has warned members of the public who feed badgers in their gardens not to provide too much food, so that the badgers do not become dependant, and not to hand-feed the animals and risk being bitten.

When Badgers Attack..
08:24 Mar 14 2006
Times Read: 646

From ThisIsGloucestershire.co.uk:



TERROR FOR FAMILIES AS BADGER GOES ON RAMPAGE

10:30 - 24 May 2003



A Rogue badger is terrorising families living in an area of Gloucester.



Residents in Tredworth say they are now too frightened to venture into their gardens at night because of the growling and snarling from the rampaging badger as it destroys their properties.



The mad beast has already torn up fences and has even munched through prized plants. For the past 10 weeks, people living in Massey Road, Hatherley Road, Vicarage Road and Marlborough Road have had their gardens virtually destroyed by the badger in his desperate search for food.



Lorna Hedges, 45, of Massey Road, was lying in bed at 2.15am when she first heard the badger.



She said: "I heard an awful racket which sounded like wood splintering. The next day I found out it was our neighbour's fence being ripped apart."



Massey Road resident, Andy Dennis, 59, said he was too scared to venture out of his property after hearing the badger at work in his garden.



He said: "I was sitting inside and I heard him ripping down the fence. He was growling like a dog. I was terrified." His wife, Madge, said: "We were too scared to come outside."



Despite all their efforts, the determined badger still manages to enter their garden every other night to hunt for food. Madge said: "We even put up a concrete paving slab over the hole he had dug under the fence, but he still managed to move that. He is very strong, and very clever."



Tony Dean, chairman and field officer for the Gloucestershire Badger Group, said: "There is a well-established sett near the railway line in Tredworth, and it sounds like he could well be a rogue.



Badgers can be very strong and determined, and residents should look for him in their gardens. He may be under their sheds, or in a greenhouse. If they find him, do not touch him as they can be very vicious, but they should call me and I will come and take him away."



And for people who think there is no need to be afraid of a badger, it was onlylast week that five people were injured when a badger went on a 48-hour rampage in an Evesham suburb.

The Village
03:29 Mar 09 2006
Times Read: 667

Once upon a time, in a land far far away there was a little village. In this village there was great chaos. The people who inhabited this small village couldn't get along very well.



Every now and then some of them would come together, but more often than not they argued over petty things. Some believed it was because the villagers were less than intelligent and some believed it was a lack of anything productive to do. The villagers knew why though. They knew it was great entertainment.



They knew that even if they gnashed their teeth and screamed at each other, very few knew them quite as well as the other villagers.



One day a little woman arrived, she was overjoyed by this chaos. As a newcomer, she didn't understand the method to the madness and she decided she would capitalize on the unsuspecting villagers' seeming inability to get along.



Unwittingly, this little woman ran into one of the older villager’s houses screaming that another villager had been mean to her. This particular villager was outraged! How could these other people be so cruel, they were hardly without flaw, yet there they were attacking this poor little woman?



The older and wiser villager sat and listened to the little woman's stories. She told tales of horrible monsters and cruel lands. This older villager, who we will simply call The Elder had visited these lands many years ago and knew what truly existed there.



The little woman continued her tales of abuse at the hands of the other villagers, oh the horrible things they said about her tales of monsters and other lands. They mocked and ridiculed her to end she cried. The woman did all she could to gain the favor of the Elder, knowing no one would dare attack or mock her while in this Elder's presence.



The Elder, as wise as any other in this position, knew these other villagers quite well. While they rarely got along, they had all coexisted long enough to understand the behavior and actions of the village. So the Elder sat and listened.



On and on this little woman went, talking about these journeys and monsters. But the Elder noticed something... every time this little woman told her tales they got grander, more dangerous, and more detailed. Eventually this little woman was telling tales of monsters and lands that the Elder knew had never existed.



Finally, the Elder stopped the little woman. As nicely and calmly as possible, the Elder pointed out the changes in the woman's stories. She was shown how the tales had changed and grown until they were completely unbelievable.



The little woman swore to the Elder that she would never lie about these lands and beasts, for it was they who made her the person she was today. The Elder, smiled at the little woman and sent her on her way.



The next day a villager arrived at The Elder's house with reports of the tales the little woman had shared. The following day another villager arrived, and this continued for many days. All the while the Elder sat back and listened to all of the versions of all the tales.



Eventually all the villagers had offered up the many versions of these tales and the Elder sat and contemplated. Days later the Elder chose to create a list of all the tales that had been muttered. All the villagers came and saw these tales and were again outraged and the audacity of this little woman.



Bouncing from home to home in the Village she had spun her tales, each becoming more extravagant than the last. At times, well-traveled villagers had offered their own tales of distant lands, which this little woman would spin into her own stories in the next home.



At once the Villagers dropped their games and worked together to run this lying little woman out of their village.



The little woman left the Village without a word. Her plan had failed, none of the villagers, save a very tiny few, had believed her. She had no proof, no explanation for the ever increasing grandiosity of the tales; she simply left with what little she carried upon arrival.



It wasn't long before word came that the little woman had set up at camp in the small town not too far down the road. This town was much more chaotic and unorganized than the Village; there was no large number of townspeople who knew each other. Instead there were many small sects within the town.



The little woman went to work, spinning her tales once again. This town, far younger than the last, was filled with naive individuals who preferred to take everyone at face value. The little woman told them her tales of distant lands, as well as her horrible experiences in the last village.



The townspeople were outraged! How could that Village attack such a sweet, kind and well-traveled little woman, this little woman who would bend over backwards to help them at the smallest request? Surely it was they who were wrong and not the little woman. It must be the dozens of villagers, who barely get along on a good day, who joined together in all their numbers to run this little woman from their streets.



From then on, when a Villager came to the town for the day, the townspeople would attack them and threaten them, all based on what this one little woman had told them of the villagers. They had no interest in getting to know the villagers and demanded they leave the town and never return.



The Villagers, smiling to themselves, sat back and watched. While they moved on and went about their business, the little woman swore to the townspeople that everything the villagers did, every word they uttered, every whisper, every joke, every village meeting was about her, and the townspeople, in all their naivety, believed the little woman. The Townspeople defended this little woman with all they had, and the little woman grinned from ear to ear in pure satisfaction.



And the Villagers laughed.