Monkeying around

Animals behaving badly

Feral goats

A herd of feral goats caused havoc for residents in the Welsh seaside town Llandudno last April after council chiefs ruled they could do nothing to stop the animals devouring garden hedges, running wild in the streets and even fighting in supermarket car parks. The council said that as the goats had reverted to a “wild state” nobody was “legally responsible for the goat populations of Llandudno.”

Dog protest

Mountain rescuers were called out earlier this month when a tired 6st (40kg) dog staged a sit-down protest on England’s highest peak. Dexter, a Doberman and Belgian Malinois crossbreed, had been walking up Scafell Pike in the Lake District with its owners when, close to the summit, it decided it had climbed far enough. The dog sat down and refused all attempts to coax it into carrying on with the walk. It was only the following morning when it overcame its stubbornness and came down.

Seagull stole pet chihuahua

A seagull seized and flew off with a family’s 2kg chihuahua, named Gizmo, in Paignton, Devon. Becca Louise Hill , Gizmo’s owner, said the gull grabbed the dog “by the scruff off his neck”. “My partner tried to grab his legs, but he was not tall enough and ... the seagull flew away,” she told the BBC’S Today Programme in 2019. A severed paw was found a month later being fought over by a pack of seagulls in a car park in Exeter. Whether it belonged to Gizmo remains uncertain. Cat burglar A cat stole £300 of goods from its owner’s neighbours including a purse, sausages and M&S sports bras. Harry was found wandering into homes and helping itself to food and clothes in May last year. Owner Donna Hibbert, from Derby, offered to return all items to their owners.