Rebecca Walsh was walking Fleur, a 4-month-old jack Russell, when the attack happened in Millbank Gardens two weeks’ ago./facepalm
The 37-year-old mother-of two thought at first that the hawk was “being friendly” but soon realised it was an attack.
Or is it the (theoretically) ‘experienced bird handler’?
Nick Robertson of Hawkforce, owns the Harris hawk that attacked a dachshund in Duke of York Square around 18 months ago.WTF?
He insisted the birds are not trying to kill the dogs, but are in fact attacking because they are afraid.
He said his hawk was jumping on the dog in fright and was so traumatised by the event that is has not been used for pest control since.
“The natural predator of these hawks is prairie dogs, which is why they don’t like them," he said. "They would not try to carry them off.”
I can only assume the 'Telegraph' reporter garbled his statement; Harris hawks are predators of prairie dogs and other rodents, they aren't predated by them (but by coyotes, certainly).
Or maybe Mr Robertson really did say that, in which case, who's the birdbrain?
Sounds like someone got their fight or flight response mixed up.
ReplyDeleteI don't suppose a Harris Hawk wrote this wikipedia entry but I reckon they aren't at the prey end of the food chain.
ReplyDeleteSome people really ought not to be permitted responsibility for anything more complicated than a pencil .. and a blunt one at that ..
ReplyDeleteIt occurs to me that, given the popularity of lap-dogs among the renaissance aristocracy and the ubiquity of hawking as a pastime, incidents like this must once have been quite commonplace.
ReplyDeleteI bet they didn't worry about the hawks being 'traumatised'* - or think the hawk was 'being friendly'.
*Though perhaps American hawks are more neurotic than their European counterparts.
http://puns.icanhascheezburger.com/2010/08/23/funny-pun-photos-this-is-hawkward/
ReplyDeleteI suspect the highly experienced 'trainer' thinks that coyotes and prairie dogs are one and the same.
ReplyDelete'Well it looks like a dog, and it lives on the prairie, so it's a prairie dog, innit?'
"Some people really ought not to be permitted responsibility for anything more complicated than a pencil .. and a blunt one at that .."
ReplyDeleteIndeed!
"I bet they didn't worry about the hawks being 'traumatised'* - or think the hawk was 'being friendly'. "
Indeed. Just more examples of the 'Disneyfication' on nature.
"http://puns.icanhascheezburger.com/2010/08/23/funny-pun-photos-this-is-hawkward/"
LOL!
"'Well it looks like a dog, and it lives on the prairie, so it's a prairie dog, innit?'"
Given how some people's minds work, I think I can see the logic in that!