Badgering The Residents
These are very definition of bad neighbors. They fight constantly - and very noisily, trash other people's yards and property and have howling sex orgies right outdoors at all hours. What's more, the authorities protect them and won't allow anyone to interfere with them. (No, they aren't Hollywood stars. In this case, anyway.) Badgers are lousy neighbors.
Numbering at least 40, they have damaged gardens in the suburb where they live. And worst of all, they are above the law.
The culprits are a colony of badgers, whose protected status means little can be done to stop their antics.
Residents in the Gleadless area ofSheffield are at their wits' end after seven years of havoc.
Richard Oldham, 43, of Kew Crescent, said the badgers first dug holes all over his lawn, then dug out the footings of decking costing £2,000, which later had to be demolished.
Next they dug a massive hole under the garden shed used by his two-year-old daughter Olivia as a playhouse.
And then his garden fence fell down because the badgers dug out the concrete posts.
He said: "My whole garden is undermined by their tunnels. I daren't let Olivia play out – if she doesn't fall down a hole, they are likely to attack her protecting their pups."
Mr Oldham contacted South Yorkshire Badger Group but was told he couldn't do anything to disturb the animals, which have pups at this time of year.
Once they have reared their pups he can apply for a licence from the Department for the Environment to install badger gates at his property.
Then, after several months monitoring the gates to ensure the badgers have all left his garden, he will be able to install permanent barriers.
All this will have to be done under the supervision of a Government-appointed consultant at a cost of several thousand pounds.
But Mr Oldham, who is disabled after a stroke, said he cannot afford the work.
Even if he could, the barriers don't work, according to 73-year-old John Cooper of nearby Smithfield Road.
We here at Blue Crab Boulevard know what the real goal is, of course. The badgers, as agents of the Animal Uprising™ are out to drive the humans out of their homes. Then the badgers will move in and watch television, a favorite pastime for badgers.
By tasha, Thursday, 19 April , 2007 @ 8:39 am
This reminded me of a problem with grounhogs my husband had at his shop in Delaware. The groundhogs were burrowing under the foundations of a shed that we had spent a month renfurbishing. Naturally he was upset that he would have to redig up the foundation and replace the cinder blocks and jack up the shed. After doing that the groundhogs came back.
So my husband decided that since the groundhogs did not take a hint, it was war. He went to the local police and said he was planning to shoot the groundhogs with a 22 caliber rifle. The local sheriff said, “Son if I was you, I would get a bigger gun.”
Afer warning the neighbors not to worry if he heard gunfire, My husband spent several evenings hanging out in the pickup with a 12 gauge shotgun waiting for the groundhogs to emerge.
” Blam, Blam” went the shotgun and one less groundhog. The next day he got the other one. Of course not much was left of their heads. The neighbor was happy and so was my husband. No more groundhogs and having to spent many hours of labor repairing foundations.