‘Giraffe house sickness’ hits town
A MYSTERIOUS noise coming from a zoo’s giraffe house is making nearby residents feel queasy, it has been claimed.
The complaints are not directed at the animals themselves, but at what they say sounds like the thrum of a a distant washing machine.
More than 150 residents living close to Paignton Zoo in Devon have reported that the low-frequency droning sound is causing them to suffer unpleasant symptoms.
Now a petition calling for an independent investigation to be carried out has attracted 165 signatures.
The effects of the noise are alleged to include headaches, tremors, a feeling of irritation, sickness and disturbed sleep.
It has been described as anything from ‘a persistent low-level hum’, ‘fluctuating’, ‘ droning’ and ‘drumming’, to ‘a thrumming sound’ and ‘a constant rumbling’.
Resident Peter Thorne believes the problem may come from the heating system used in the zoo’s giraffe house.
Another neighbour, Gillian Watling, claimed the low-frequency sound had caused her to have tremors and other symptoms, including ‘waves passing down the muscles in my back, buttocks, thighs and calves’ during the night. She added: ‘I have also suffered heart palpitations like the feeling you get standing next to a large bass speaker that is playing music very loudly at a rock concert.’
Paignton Zoo declined to comment, saying that the issue was in the hands of their lawyers.
But a spokesman for Torbay council said: ‘We have conducted multiple assessments in several locations, including a factory and Paignton Zoo’s giraffe house, to try to identify where reported low-frequency noise is coming from.
‘However, our officers have been unable to hear or detect any lowfrequency noise that would be an issue. For a noise to constitute a nuisance, it must be something that the average reasonable person would object to.’
‘Suffered heart
palpitations’