Badger attack leaves victim scarred for life

Mike Fitzgerald underwent plastic surgery on injuries to his arm and leg at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham yesterday.

The 67-year-old from Greenhill was the most seriously injured of Boris the badger's five victims, after the hand-reared animal went on the rampage.

The Evening News was the first paper to break the story. Since then the badger's notoriety has now scaled to new heights in the national press.

Wounds

The tale featured on ITV news, has become a talking point on every national radio station and national newspaper.

Pam Fitzgerald said the attack on her husband at the front door of their house was "like something out of a horror movie".

The animal injured four other people during a 48-hour rampage around the town in what is thought to be an "unprecedented" attack.

It left Mr Fitzgerald, a retired BBC producer and director, with severe wounds to his forearm and legs, which needed skin grafts.

Mrs Fitzgerald, 60, said she and her husband had gone to bed at around 11pm last Friday, May 9, when they heard a loud bang in their garage.

Her husband went to investigate and opened the garage to let the badger out before retiring to the front door to watch it go.

Instead of scuttling away, the animal headed straight for him and attacked.

Mrs Fitzgerald had come downstairs and was standing behind her husband at the time.

"It was like something out of a horror movie, he was bleeding so badly," she said.

"To hear your husband screaming and shouting in such pain, it was horrifying."

She called an ambulance which took Mr Fitzgerald to Worcestershire Royal Hospital, Worcester, but doctors decided he needed plastic surgery in Birmingham.

"He is very badly shaken up and he's going to be permanently scarred," she said.

Worcestershire Badger Society put down the badger after catching it in a trap laid on the Fitzgeralds' front lawn.

It had gone missing from the Vale Wildlife Rescue Visitor Centre at Twyford some time on Wednesday.