Picture courtesy of IMDB
By Raz Koller
“I feel like i’m living in a Alfred Hitchcock movieâ€, says Shimshon Badash from Ramat Hasharon, who has been suffering attacks from a crow for the last week.
The story began about eight days ago. Badash says that “In Ramat Hasharon there are many crows and sometimes the fledglings fall off the trees. One day one of them fell into my yard and the trouble began. The fledgling was large and cried loudly until the neighbors started shouting at me because of it. I had no choice and I took it out of the yard and put it next to the gate.”
Let me just remind all of the readers that you shouldn’t touch fledglings, the birds won’t appreciate that, much like you wouldn’t appreciate a stranger touching your children. Shimshon Badash obviously didn’t know that, but it’s a mistake he won’t make again soon. That’s because the next day, as he returned home from a drive to the north, an unpleasant surprise was waiting for him.
“As I stepped out of my car, the crow started attacking me,” he says, “I don’t know, maybe it was the fledgling’s mother. A few days later I went for a walk on a Saturday morning and I was attacked again. I tried to run and fell down and was injured. Since then and every time I come out of the house to my car, the crow attacks me and I have to run from it.”
Now some readers would say to themselves “It’s not exactly “The Birds”, we’re talking about one bird. How much damage can one bird do?”
Well, Badash says, “It’s a big and scary bird. Even if I run it flies faster and gets me. Fortunately it doesn’t attack my wife or kids. It just attacks me every time I leave the house. My daughter in law is pregnant and I’m afraid it will attack her.”
So, hoping for some sort of solution, Badash hurried to City Hall to ask for help. However, strangely as it may sound, they didn’t believe him.
“I had to shout in City Hall so they won’t think I’m lying. Finely they sent a vet.” he says. “The vet saw the fledgling and took it with him. I asked him to take care of the crow as well, but he said it’ s a protected bird and there’s nothing he can do. I asked him
if I wasn’t protected as well, but it didn’t help. The crow still attacks me whenever I leave the house.”
In the meanwhile, Badash wears an helmet every time he comes out of the house, and opens a parasol above his head. “But you can’t live like that. I can’t even sit in my own yard, because the crow is always there,” he says. He even tried to hang some silver balloons like the people at City Hall had suggested, but the crow was unimpressed by the trick. “I’ve spent Two hundred shekels on the balloons and quite a lot of phone time because of the crow. That’s a lot of money.”
The people of City Hall said it’s a protected bird and there’s nothing they can do. What’s more, according to them, it’s not a rare phenomenon that crows attack when they feel their fledglings are in danger (wouldn’t you?), and all you have to do is wait. In a week or so the crow will stop attacking on its own. But Badash says he can not live like that. “I just want someone to fix this, that’s all”. Of course by “fixing” Badash means that he wants someone to kill the bird.
And me, I can’t help thinking the crows (as most birds) do not attack for no cause. Usually it’s danger to their fledgling that makes them crazy, they are similar to people in that sense. So maybe if you don’t have a problem disturbing or hurting a fallen fledgling, maybe you can do with a peck or two for a couple of weeks…
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