An aggressive raven was terminated on Wednesday in the presence of the police after it had attacked a child and a dog in Grundahverfi near Akranes in west Iceland.
A police officer was called to the scene. The photo is not related to the story. By Páll Stefánsson.
“We’d like to point out to people to beware of ravens who aren’t afraid of humans. That one was particularly aggressive,” a housewife who witnessed the attack told local news website Skessuhorn.
“The raven landed on our patio. Our daughter was outside with the dog, which is a three-month-old puppy. The raven perched on the patio wall and stared at them. When she bent down to pick up a stick for the dog […] the raven attacked her and tried to grab her back,” the mother, who wouldn’t be named, described.
“The child was terrified, screamed and ran inside with the dog. If I hadn’t managed to close the door the raven would have followed them inside. The beast then hung around on the patio croaking viciously for a long time. My husband came home and it was still there,” she continued.
The couple contacted the Icelandic Institute of Natural History which permitted the raven’s termination. A police officer who was called to the scene confirmed how aggressively the raven was acting.
After following it around for a while, the raven was terminated without a firearm being used—that would not have been practical in the middle of a residential area.
“We were concerned about people and the animals around us, especially kids who like to walk this way home from school,” the housewife concluded.
