Israeli Man Stalked By Crow

Photo credit: birdsofsanibel.free.fr

Now, before you say, "But, SkyePuppy, that's a cormorant, not a crow!" let me state that I'm using the same journalistic integrity as YNetNews, who reported this story May 12, 2006. The picture they used to accompany their article shows three cormorants, not three crows. But that's not really the point.

The point is that there's a man in Israel who is under attack like a character in Hitchcock's The Birds.

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.

"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.

What's hard to believe in this story is that the crow is a protected species in Israel, so Badash can't just shoot the thing. The crow is a nuiscance, a menace, a pest. Plus, they just sound bad. Why would Israel want to protect them? Especially when they do strafing runs on Israel's law-abiding citizens. But there's no mercy from the authorities.

[T]he 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."

That's easy for the mayor to say...