posted on May 15, 2006 10:50:23 AM new
Israeli man: I'm being stalked by crow
Ramat Hasharon resident subjected to ongoing attacks by violent raven after the bird's chick fell into his garden. 'I'm forced to leave house with helmet and parasol,' man says, adds his life now looks like a Hitchcock movie
Raanan Ben Zur
Like being in a horror movie: Shimshon Badash, 58, from the town of Ramat Hasharon in the heart of Israel is in despair: For over a week now he has been suffering repeated attacks by a crow that lives near his house and is forced to leave his home wearing a helmet and equipped with a parasol in order to protect himself.
"I need help. I don't have a life anymore. I live like in Hitchcock's movie 'The Birds'," the distressed Badash said Friday.
Badash's nightmare began after a crow's chick fell out of its nest into his backyard last week. The young bird's loud cries forced Badash
to pick it up and carry it outside his garden, a move that proved to be a big mistake.
Ever since that day a crow – probably the chick's mother - began attacking Badash on a daily basis. "When I came back home on Independence Day, the crow began attacking me… several days later I went outside the house and was assaulted again. I felt I was in danger. I tried to run and then fell and injured myself. Whenever I wanted to leave the house, the crow would strike me. I was forced to be on the run constantly," Badash related.
"This is a large and scary bird. Even when I'm running it flies faster and catches up with me. Fortunately it does not move against my wife and children and only attacks me," he added.
'Crow a protected bird'
In the meantime, Badash's life has become unbearable. He said that he is unable to sit in his garden as the crow lurks there waiting to attack. "Whenever I go out of the house I put on a helmet and hold a parasol over my head, and only in this way I'm protected," he explained.
Badash approached the Ramat Hasharon municipality several times in order to get their help, but he claimed no one there took him seriously. However, the town's Mayor Itzik Ruchberger eventually consented to visit Badash's house and look into the situation himself.
The mayor, who confirmed he had witnessed the crow attacking Badash, said that according to the city's veterinarians "this is a common phenomenon that lasts for a week or two and then disappears. As the crow is a protected animal the veterinarians cannot hurt it, and so the only solution is to wait for the problem to resolve itself."
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posted on May 17, 2006 12:54:31 AM new
No one in that town has a tranquilizer gun?
Wait until the problem resolves itself? lol I don't think so. I shoot the large nasty black bird.....the next time I saw her.
Human life and health is more important than a rabid crow....and that's what I'd argue in front of a jury of my peers. Course here...it would never be taken to trail....they shoot them here all the time.
