Man Eating Badgers

From Laura...

A story of killer Badgers being released in Iraq. Apparently scaring the local populace and eating the local animals.

Key Quotes from the Story...

Basara, Iraq has an unusual problem: they've been invaded by badgers! These cute little fellows are rumored to run as fast as deer and to eat animals as large as cows.

One Iraqi woman shares her close encounter: "I was sleeping at night when this strange animal hit me on my head. I have not seen such an animal before. My husband hurried to shoot it but it was as swift as a deer ... It is the size of a dog but his head is like a monkey. It runs so quickly."

Some believe that these badgers were delibrately placed in the lands surrounding Basara by British forces to harass Iraqi citizens. These rumors were quickly attended to by British army spokesman Major David Gell, "We have not released giant badgers in Basra, and nor have we been collecting eggs and releasing serpents into the Shatt al-Arab river."

Others believe that the badgers are indigenous to the area. “These animals appeared before the fall of the regime in 1986," said Mushtaq Abdul-Mahdi, director of Basra's veterinary hospital. "They are known as Al-Ghirayri and locally as Al-Girta." The badgers he describes are more commonly known as "honey badgers", and, while they are known to be fearsome predators capable of killing cobras, are generally not a threat to people.One local farmer is not convinced that they are harmless. “I saw it three days ago at night attacking animals," he said. "It even ate a cow. It tore the cow up piece by piece."

The good news is that these Man Eating Badgers are not the same as the mean, nasty little Wisconsin Badgers (pictured above and below).