FERRET KILLS A MAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19320, 6 May 1926, Page 13

FERRET KILLS A MAN.

OLD AGE PENSIONER'S END. ATTACKED IN HIS SLEEP. Found with the lobe of one ear chewed ' ofr, and a large piece of fie ; .h eaten cut of the side of his scalp by a ferret, while ho was asleep, William Huggins, an old , age pensioner, was- so badly injured that he died in hospital at Manilla, Now South Wales, last week. Ha was employed. by the local council as caretaker of the recreation ground. He had been in bad health and the local police had been visiting his hut at regular intervals to see how lie was faring. Constable Hill visited the hut one morning and, 'hearing groans from inside, pushed open, the door and found Huggins 3ii a terrible state of exhaustion. He was "lying on the floor of the hut, in a pool of blood, clasping the ferret in both hands. "He attacked me," he told the constable, and them collapsed. / .Apparently Hughes had been attacked iri Ins sleep, had fought with the animal, arid fallen from his bunk to the floor, his subsequent death being partly due to the force of the. fall, but mainly to the terrible injuries inflicted by the bloodthirsty animal. liuggins had complained the dnv before the attack that his sleep was disturbed by a large rat, which his cat did not seem able to catcfof It was afterwards ascertained that a resident who went rabbit hunting; a week before, lost his ferret, whirl: went into a rabbit burrow and stayed there.