A porcupine was talking regular walks through the streets of Bielsk Podlaski. It was finally caught in the basement of a parish. When animal welfare volunteers were about to take the porcupine with them, it felt threatened and started to shoot its quills at them. One of the women was wounded in the leg.
"It was minutes after midnight. I was sitting with my friends next to the Pope John Paul II monument. Suddenly, my friend said: Either I'm hallucinating, or a porcupine is walking down the street," Daniel Jakubowicz said.
It all happened on at night between Sunday and Monday in Bielsk Podlaski.
He locked the porcupine in a basement
"I was surprised, but not as much I would have been, if I hadn't read earlier on in the local media that indeed a porcupine had been running through the streets for a for days. But reading about it one thing, and actually seeing it is a different story. I told my friends that we should catch the animal," our interviewee said.
The porcupine passed the gates of the Saints Mary and Nicholas Basilica parish and hid in the basement.
"I closed the door behind it and called city services. Firefighters arrived immediately. It was around 1.30, so I went home," the man said.
Police, fire service and animal welfare involved
Agnieszka Dąbrowska of Bielsk Podlaski Police says the officers notified the parson about the situation and ask that nobody open the basement door.
"The fire service, in turn, asked a branch of the Animal Welfare Society in Białystok for help," she added.
Two animal welfare volunteers arrived at the scene around noon on Monday.
"Wrong is one who thinks that catching such an animal is an easy task. Especially as the place had plenty of nooks and crannies, and the porcupine started to shoot its quills. One of the volunteers was wounded in the leg. The wounds are shallow, but having your skin pierced with such quills is no pleasure," said Anna Jaroszewicz, chairwoman of the Białystok Animal Welfare branch.
Porcupine secured, search for the owner
The porcupine was placed in a transporter and taken to one of the volunteers' place. It is being kept in a special enclosure. "We're checking who had such animals in the area. In two cases it turned out the animals were at home. We will look further. If we don't find the owner, we will place the porcupine in one of the centres for exotic animals," she explained.
Porcupines live in natural environment in Africa. "They can be legally bought in Polish farms," Jaroszewicz stressed.
The parson, Ryszard Zalewski, who had been visited by the "exceptional guest", said that luckily the room was empty.
"No damage was caused by this visit, but we will certainly remember it," he smiled.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, tvn24.pl
Źródło zdjęcia głównego: Daniel Jakubowicz