Five injured in badger
rampage
13 May 2003 - 4 National News
Five people have been hurt after they
were set upon by an aggressive and hungry badger which went on the
rampage in Evesham, Co Worcestershire.
In the most serious
incident, one man was hospitalised and had to receive two skin
grafts to his arm following an attack on May 8.
The animal then
managed to evade search teams for two days – and chase off two
police officers who picked up his trail. However, the badger was
eventually captured by the Worcestershire Badger Society and put to
sleep.
The renegade mammal was later identified as Boris, a
one-year-old tame badger who had been released from the nearby Vale
Wildlife Visitor Centre at Evesham Country Park on May 7.
Boris
had been hand-reared and was hand-fed by staff at the centre on a
daily basis and had apparently never shown any sign of aggression.
But the National Federation of Badger Groups (NFBG) believes
that when Boris found himself "alone, hungry and frightened in a
strange environment", he snapped.
"Badgers are powerful animals
and we strongly advise against their domestication," said Dr Elaine
King, Chief Executive of the National Federation of Badger
Groups.
"Boris's behaviour was quite unlike that of a wild
badger, which would have an instinctive fear of humans... It appears
that someone hoped to take him for a pet and he was probably
released when hunger made him aggressive.
"Boris's tragic
encounter with strangers in an unfamiliar environment illustrates
how important it is to allow animals intended for release into the
wild to develop and maintain their natural fear of
people."
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