Nutty tale
I always knew you can expect absolutely anything in this city, but crack-addicted squirrels? Understand that humans here are wird, but animals too?
Stories involving drug abuse have recently dominated British newspapers. In late September, tales of Kate Moss, a supermodel, snorting cocaine with her rock-star boyfriend, Pete Doherty, were splashed across front pages. (Shocking, really, for Londoners to discover that rock-stars and supermodels snort cocaine.) And speculation continues over the refusal of David Cameron, a prospective Conservative Party leader, to say whether he took drugs before becoming an MP. Yet by far the most bizarre story surfaced in mid-October, alleging that squirrels in the south London borough of Brixton have become addicted to crack cocaine.
The evidence behind this new-found scourge is flimsy. Theory has it that a police crackdown on drug-dealing in the area has led some dealers to bury their stashes in residents' front gardens, where they are discovered by the hungry animals. One unnamed Brixtonian described one of the addicted squirrels foraging in his flower-beds: “It looked like it knew what it was looking for”, he said. “It was ill-looking and its eyes looked bloodshot but it kept on desperately digging.” These dubious reports were accompanied by assertions that crack-addicted squirrels are an “acknowledged problem” in American cities—though it seems likelier that urban myths are simply jumping national borders.
Yay! Go the squirrels!
Stories involving drug abuse have recently dominated British newspapers. In late September, tales of Kate Moss, a supermodel, snorting cocaine with her rock-star boyfriend, Pete Doherty, were splashed across front pages. (Shocking, really, for Londoners to discover that rock-stars and supermodels snort cocaine.) And speculation continues over the refusal of David Cameron, a prospective Conservative Party leader, to say whether he took drugs before becoming an MP. Yet by far the most bizarre story surfaced in mid-October, alleging that squirrels in the south London borough of Brixton have become addicted to crack cocaine.
The evidence behind this new-found scourge is flimsy. Theory has it that a police crackdown on drug-dealing in the area has led some dealers to bury their stashes in residents' front gardens, where they are discovered by the hungry animals. One unnamed Brixtonian described one of the addicted squirrels foraging in his flower-beds: “It looked like it knew what it was looking for”, he said. “It was ill-looking and its eyes looked bloodshot but it kept on desperately digging.” These dubious reports were accompanied by assertions that crack-addicted squirrels are an “acknowledged problem” in American cities—though it seems likelier that urban myths are simply jumping national borders.
Yay! Go the squirrels!
