Mistyeyeddreamer
08-05-03, 02:17 PM
I don't know if you saw the little piece in the Daily Mail today, Badger, about badgers http://www.nfh.org.uk/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif If not I'm typing it out here for you to see:
Burial committtal prayers at St.Peter's Church in Thundersley, Essex may in future need to carry the caveat 'for the time being'. The churchyard has a plague of badgers which keep truffling for bones and digging up coffins.
A number of Yorick-style skulls have appeared outside the 13th-century church. "The badgers are undermining the graves," says churchwarden Don Burton.
There is evidence of more than 100 bones having been unintentionally exhumed but this being modern Britain, no one dares try to stop the animals which are protected by law.
Some years ago a plan to relocate the badgers to another parish was considered. The cost to the church coffers then would have been £170,000. That sum today would be more than £500,000.
It is estimated there are more than 100 badgers in the seven-acre terraced churchyard. They are rapidly catching up with the number of the congregants who attend the weekly services. "Many years ago, people used to pay a shilling for a dead badger," continues Burton. "That is not the case today."
Indeed it is not. Ninety-nine percent of all congregants are 'very happy' the badgers have taken over the terraced church-yard.
"Most people here love animals," says Burton. Horticulturally-minded neighbours may yet take another view.
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First time I've heard of a 'plague' of badgers http://www.nfh.org.uk/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif Nice to hear they're flourishing somewhere though http://www.nfh.org.uk/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif
Misty
Burial committtal prayers at St.Peter's Church in Thundersley, Essex may in future need to carry the caveat 'for the time being'. The churchyard has a plague of badgers which keep truffling for bones and digging up coffins.
A number of Yorick-style skulls have appeared outside the 13th-century church. "The badgers are undermining the graves," says churchwarden Don Burton.
There is evidence of more than 100 bones having been unintentionally exhumed but this being modern Britain, no one dares try to stop the animals which are protected by law.
Some years ago a plan to relocate the badgers to another parish was considered. The cost to the church coffers then would have been £170,000. That sum today would be more than £500,000.
It is estimated there are more than 100 badgers in the seven-acre terraced churchyard. They are rapidly catching up with the number of the congregants who attend the weekly services. "Many years ago, people used to pay a shilling for a dead badger," continues Burton. "That is not the case today."
Indeed it is not. Ninety-nine percent of all congregants are 'very happy' the badgers have taken over the terraced church-yard.
"Most people here love animals," says Burton. Horticulturally-minded neighbours may yet take another view.
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First time I've heard of a 'plague' of badgers http://www.nfh.org.uk/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif Nice to hear they're flourishing somewhere though http://www.nfh.org.uk/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif
Misty