Posted on 07/11/2007 11:29:16 AM PDT by Cecily
British forces operating around the southern Iraqi city of Basra are being blamed for the arrival of a plague of vicious badgers that stalk the streets at night, attacking livestock and even humans.
Local farmers have caught and killed several of the beasts, but this has done nothing to dispel rumours of a bear-like monster that eats humans and was, according to the local rumour mill, released into the area by UK forces to spread panic.
Major David Gell, a British Army spokesman, said the animals were thought to be a kind of honey badger or ratel - melivora capensis - which can be fierce but are not usually dangerous to humans unless provoked.
The animals are indigenous to Africa and large parts of the Middle East and are about the same size as European European badgers but much more aggressive, with long claws and strong jaws. They have been described in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's most fearless animal.
They are native to the region but rare in Iraq. Theyre nocturnal carnivores with a fearsome reputation, but they dont stalk humans and carry them back to their lair, Major Gell said.
Iraqi scientists have attempted to calm the public but the story of the British badgers has spread like wildfire through Basra and the surrounding villages.
Mushtaq Abdul-Mahdi, director of Basras veterinary hospital, has inspected the corpses of several dead badgers and sought to reassure his fellow citizens that they are not new to the region but had been seen well before Saddam's ouster in 2003.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Interesting critter with quite the range.
http://www.lioncrusher.com/animal.asp?animal=202
What rubbish! Everbody knows the Jooooooooos released the badgers. < / s >
Manbearpig.
Maybe it’s a chupacabra?
Oh, they are the PhDs of the Middle East, that is the scary part. I think this is a great rumor to spread. And that they are cross bred with pigs.
Or the Hawks. Don’t forget the Hawks.
Those are modern morons, LOL!
Sounds like the rare and highly endangered Mesopotamian Chupacabra. The last reported sighting was in 1968 at a hashish bar in Amsterdam.
“inspected the corpses of several dead badgers and sought to reassure his fellow citizens that they are not new to the region but had been seen well before Saddam’s ouster in 2003.”
Before 2003, they were known as “FOOD”, with much reduced numbers.....
"I'm sorry. We are all out of badgers. Would you accept a wolverine in it's place?"
L
The British have imported their famed Beast of Exmoor as a combat weapon for Psy-Ops.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beast_of_Exmoor
Shape shifting Jews no doubt /s
Sounds like the Monkeymen of Bombay.
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