Alan Gosling at his home in Buckfastleigh (Image: SWNS)
The retiree named as the UK’s bird flu ‘patient zero’ says he caught it when he was shielding from Covid to protect his pet ducks.
Alan Gosling, from Buckfastleigh, has barely left his home since the first lockdown in March 2020 because he feared a coronavirus infection would force him away from his flock.
The 79-year-old, was identified on Thursday (January 6) as the first person across the nation to become infected with a particular strain of avian flu.
But sadly, all 140 ducks have now been culled, with 120 who lived in duck houses outside in the garden and the other 20 who lived inside as his pets.
(Image: Gosling family / SWNS)
Doctors did tests to see if Alan himself had become infected despite the fact the H5N1 strain had never infected a human before – and came back positive.
The pensioner is now stuck inside his home alone as he grieves his ducks.
He told The Sun: “They were my close friends and I’ve lost them. I stayed in because if I went down with Covid, there would be nobody to look after them.
“It’s only me. I thought they’d die. Then they went ahead and said they’d kill them all anyway.”
Alan’s family are growing increasingly concerned for him, saying it has been “a living nightmare for him” as he is left to grieve his ducks alone in isolation.
His daughter in-law Ellesha Gosling, 26, told DevonLive: “The past couple of weeks have been hell. Alan told us when the birds were killed, it was the ‘worst moment of his life’.
Alan Gosling at his home in Buckfastleigh (Image: SWNS)
“The culling of his beloved ducks has destroyed him – it’s broken him. It has been so stressful and an absolute nightmare for us as a family.”
Alan has now also been told that he needs to pay for the clean up and disinfection of his property, himself, so Ellesha has set up a fundraiser to help him pay for this.
On the GoFundMe page, she wrote: “We need to be able to support dad with the clean up and disinfecting of the property and land, to which we have been told now that dad has to pay for. Please help us to help dad with this monumental task!! And thank you!”
LEWISTON TOWNSHIP, Wis. (WMTV) – Columbia County authorities tracked and rescued a hunter in the early hours of Thursday morning who had been gored by a buck.
According to a post on the Portage Fire Department’s Facebook page, it was called to N8251 Schultz Road in Lewiston Township to help the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office find a missing man who was lost in the woods.
The hunter had gone to track a deer around 4:30 p.m. on the west side of the property.
Deputies were able to find the man’s ATV and followed his tracks.ADVERTISEMENThttps://f13a83a346bb17385c3ef0d669a05340.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html
Officials eventually found the man in a drainage ditch, noting he had a wound on the inside of his right leg caused by the buck.
Deputies report the man was disoriented and possibly suffering from hypothermia. They were able to provide first aid…
A man Ontario County sheriff’s deputies said shot to death another man while hunting on Thanksgiving Day has now been charged.
Deputies said Wednesday that Kevin Hudson, 61, of Clifton Springs, is charged with criminally negligent homicide, a felony. The arrest comes after a joint investigation involving the Sheriff’s Office andstate Department of Environmental Conservation police.
Hudson and Zachary Barse, 28, of Gorham, were hunting together in a wooded area on Cross Road on Thanksgiving Day.
Barse wounded a deer and was tracking it on foot. Deputies said Hudson, whowas in a tree stand, fired a shotgun toward movement in an area of thick brush near a creek, which he thought was the wounded deer.
TheDemocrat and Chroniclereported at the time that Hudsonclimbed down from his tree stand and discovered he had struck Barse. He called 911 and began CPR…
Image caption,The military is trying to rescue people who are still trapped
At least 21 people have died after heavy snow trapped them in their vehicles in northern Pakistan.
As many as 1,000 vehicles became stranded as would-be tourists reportedly rushed to view the winter snowfall in the hilltop town of Murree.
A policeman, his wife and their six children, as well as another family-of-five, are among the dead, according to local emergency services Rescue 1122.
The military is attempting to clear roads and rescue those still trapped.
Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid said the crisis had been caused by the number of people travelling to the area, north of the capital Islamabad. More than 100,000 cars had arrived in the colonial-era town in recent days, with social media in Pakistan flooded with pictures of people enjoying the snow.
But by Friday, local media reported that tourists…
The illusion of a successful, free-market economy is shattered – and now Tokayev’s violent crackdown bodes ill for dissenters
‘On New Year’s Day, motorists awoke to find it would cost twice as much as the day before to fill their tanks. Demonstrations ensued.’Photograph: Vladimir Tretyakov/AP
Sat 8 Jan 2022 05.00 EST
Almaty, the commercial capital ofKazakhstan, is the kind of mirage that oil-rich nations so often produce. It has all the trappings of comfort and consumer excess: swanky shopping malls, luxury car dealerships, high-end hotels.
This is the image of prosperity that the country’s rulers enjoy projecting to the world. For decades, Kazakhs have been encouraged to take out expensive loans to experience their share in the dream: to buy flats, cars and even holidays they can barely afford.
Beyond the limits of Almaty and the capital city, Nur-Sultan, however, the illusion begins to look…
MATTHEW BROWN,Associated PressJan. 6, 2022Updated: Jan. 7, 2022 10:26a.m.5
1of5This Jan. 24, 2018, photo released by the National Park Service shows a wolf from the Wapiti Lake pack silhouetted by a nearby hot spring in Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. Park officials say hunters in neighboring states have killed 20 of the park’s renown gray wolves in recent months, most of them in Montana after the state lifted hunting restrictions near the park. (Jacob W. Frank/National Park Service via AP, File)Jacob W. Frank/AP
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Twenty of Yellowstone National Park’s renowned gray wolves roamed from the park and were shot by hunters in recent months — the most killed by hunting in a single season since the predators were reintroduced to the region more than 25 years ago, according to park officials.
Fifteen wolves were shot after roaming across the park’s northern border into Montana, according to…
Weighing 80-100kg and sporting long straight horns, white spots on its face and large facial scent glands, the saola does not sound like an animal that would be hard to spot. But it was not until1992that this elusive creature was discovered, becoming the first large mammal new to science in more than 50 years.
Nicknamed the “Asian unicorn”, the saola continues to be elusive. They have never been seen by a biologist in the wild and have been camera-trapped onlya handful of times. There are reports of villagers…
Fifteen wolves were shot after roaming across the park’s northern border into Montana, according to figures released to The Associated Press. Five more died in Idaho and Wyoming.
Park officials said in a statement to AP that the deaths mark “a significant setback for the species’ long-term viability and for wolf research.”
One pack — the Phantom Lake Pack — is now considered “eliminated” after most or all of its members were killed over a two-month span beginning in October, according to the park.
Gianforte, an avid hunter and trapper, did not directly address the request to halt hunting in a Wednesday letter responding to Sholly.
“Once a wolf exits the park and enters lands in the State of Montana it may be harvested pursuant to regulations established by the (state wildlife) Commission under Montana law,” Gianforte wrote.
Gianforte last year received a warning from a Montana game warden after trapping and shooting a radio-collared wolf about 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of the park without taking a state-mandated trapper education course.
In his response to Sholly, the governor said Montana protects against overhunting through rules adopted by the wildlife commission, which can review hunting seasons if harvest levels top a certain threshold.
For southwestern Montana, including areas bordering the park, that threshold is 82 wolves. Sixty-four have been killed in that region to date this season, out of 150 wolves killed statewide, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
The most recent wolf killing along the Montana-Yellowstone border happened on New Year’s Day.
Wolf trapping in the area opened Dec. 21. Under new rules, Montana hunters can use bait such as meat to lure in wolves for killing and trappers can now use snares in addition to leghold traps.
“Allowances for trapping and especially baiting are a major concern, especially if these tactics lure wolves out of the park,” Yellowstone spokesperson Morgan Warthin said.
Urged by Republican lawmakers, Montana wildlife officials last year loosened hunting and trapping rules for wolves statewide. They also eliminated longstanding wolf quota limits in areas bordering the park. The quotas, which Sholly asked Gianforte to reinstate, allowed only a few wolves to be killed along the border annually.
The original quotas were meant to protect packs that draw tourists to Yellowstone from around the world for the chance to see a wolf in the wild.
Montana’s efforts to make it easier to kill wolves mirror recent actions by Republicans and conservatives in other states such as Idaho and Wisconsin. The changes came after hunters and ranchers successfully lobbied to reduce wolf populations that prey on big game herds and occasionally on livestock.
But the states’ increased aggression toward the predators has raised concerns among federal wildlife officials. In September, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it would examine if federal endangered species protections should be restored for more than 2,000 wolves in northern U.S. Rockies states including Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.
Protections for the region’s wolves were lifted a decade ago, based in part on assurances the states would maintain viable wolf populations.
A representative of the hunting industry said outfitters and guides support the preservation of wolves inside Yellowstone. But once the animals cross the boundary, sustainable hunting and trapping should be allowed, said Montana Outfitters and Guides Association Executive Director Mac Minard.
Minard questioned whether the 20 wolves killed so far this year after leaving Yellowstone should even be considered “park wolves.”
“That just doesn’t make sense,” he said. “Why aren’t they ‘Montana wolves’ that happened to go into the park?”
Marc Cooke with the advocacy group Wolves of the Rockies predicted a backlash against Gianforte and the state for not doing more to shield wolves leaving Yellowstone.
“People love these animals and they bring in tons of money for the park,” Cooke said. “This boils down to the commercialization of wildlife for a small minority of special interest groups.”
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