Story By: Alex Cope, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
This mother-of-two has posted photos of her head bleeding and other injuries she says have been caused by a hawk attacking her every time she leaves her house.
The images were posted online by Sandra Machado Faria, 36, who says a pair of hawks created a nest in a tree in the garden of her home in the city of Sao Jose do Rio Preto in the state of Sao Paulo in south-eastern Brazil.
The mother-of-two posted photos of the injuries on social media with the caption: “People please help me there is a hawk nest in a tree in my garden and even the environmental police have seen it and cannot do anything.
“I have two children aged six and two years old… nobody can do anything, not even leave the house and I’m not taking my daughter to school. We are prisoners in our own home. I know it’s attacking me because of the nest but it seems like they (the authorities) are going to wait for it to really attack a child before they take action.”
In the photos, Faria can be seen bleeding from her head near her ear and with scratches on her face.
She says that every time she leaves the house with her children “she has to think of a strategy to avoid being attacked by the bird.”
She says she covers her children, the youngest of whom is in a wheelchair, with a cloth and takes them into her car before she runs by herself to open the gate, with the bird attacking her.
The housewife says the Environmental Police visited the house but took no action as it is prohibited to interfere with the hawk’s nests.
She says she has used CDs and aluminium on her rooftop to try to scare the birds away with the shining but with no effect, saying she even “has nightmares about that hawk”.
Faria says it is the third time hawks have used the tree to make a nest for their young but it is the first time they have attacked her.
Local vet Halim Atique Neto said hawk attacks are not common but said it could be happening as the birds believe their young are in danger.
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