Thursday, January 04, 2007

Wow

News from England, which is apparently traveling back down time to pre-Conquest wylderneff:

An 80-year-old woman fought off three wild boar as they tried to savage her dachshund during a new year walk on Dartmoor. Rosemary Hamilton-Meikle told yesterday how she used her dog's lead to frighten two of the wild pigs away and hit the third on the snout with it...

Another walker who was close by at the time said: "We could hear the pigs grunting. It was evil. They were only 10 yards from a pathway that walkers use. It could easily have been a child that was attacked. There should be warning signs up."

In the past year animal activists have released two lots of wild boar from farms in Devon and many of the animals are still at large... Jo Barr, spokeswoman for the RSPCA in the south-west, said attacks on people were rare. In the past eight years there had only been two cases in Britain in which a boar made contact with a person, she said. "They are shy creatures and frightened of humans. They are only a danger if they are cornered or if they are protecting young."

Or want a daschund snack. On behalf of the swine, would it be too much to ask that dog owners put some mustard and diced onions on their pooches before going out?