A litter-picking enthusiast who spends an hour of his own time each day tidying up rubbish was stunned to be fined £75 for putting refuse in a bin.
Council officials accused David Baker, 39, of Stourbridge, West Midlands, of fly-tipping, reports the Daily Telegraph.
They said he had used a public street bin to deposit a pizza box and junk mail – considered as “domestic waste”.
The former geologist has gathered tonnes of rubbish dropped by strangers over the last six years, winning awards for his efforts.
He described his fine as “bureaucracy gone mad” and said the council seemed so “desperate for money” it would fine anybody.
Baker said: “I think that it is completely outrageous that I should be fined for actually cleaning rubbish off the streets.
“How can people who actually want to put rubbish in the bin be fined? To claim that what I put in the bin amounts to fly-tipping is crazy. “I moved to a town centre flat six years ago and got fed up with all the rubbish in the street.
“I am out at least an hour every day and do it all for free. I just think the council are desperate for money and have a mentality of fining people for anything at the moment.”
Councillor Tracy Wood said: “Our enforcement officers issued a fixed penalty fine to Mr Baker in Stourbridge, after they found his domestic waste and letters in the litter bin on a number of occasions.
“However, we will be reviewing the fine and speaking to Mr Baker directly to discuss it.”
Elephant learns to speak Korean
An Asian elephant called Koshik has astounded scientists – by learning to speak Korean.
Researchers report that the mammal has learnt to imitate human speech and can say five words in Korean.
The zoo animal places the tip of his trunk into his mouth to transform his natural low rumble into a convincing impression of a human voice.
It means elephants join a growing list of animals able to mimic human speech, from parrots and mynah birds to the recently reported case of a human-sounding beluga whale.
The study’s lead author, Angela Stoeger, from the University of Vienna, said she first came across Koshik after videos of the elephant were posted on YouTube.
After making contact with his owners, she went to his home, Everland Zoo in South Korea, to study his unusual vocal talent.
Stoeger said: “We asked native Korean speakers, who had never experienced the elephant before, to write down what they understood when we played back recordings from Koshik.”
They found that Koshik’s calls correlated to five Korean words: “annyeong” (hello); “anja” (sit down); “aniya” (no); “nuwo” (lie down) and “choah” (good).
But while Koshik sounds convincing, the researchers do not believe that he has any comprehension of the words that he is saying.
Instead, they think that the elephant took up talking as a way to bond with his human companions.
Owl scared of flying gets own house
An agrophobic owl who is afraid of flying outside has been given his own red brick house.
Gandalf the Great Grey Owl gets scared flying out in the open so his owners built his aviary inside a brick shed.
He now spends his days watching the world go by out of his window, reports the Daily Telegraph. “He is a bit of a wuss as he doesn’t like flying in big open spaces,” said owner Janet Southard, who runs the Wild Arena photography company, based inside Knowsley Safari Park near Liverpool.
“When we moved here we put him in the shed temporarily while we built his aviary outside.
“But he didn’t want to move so now he has an aviary inside the lovely red brick shed. He loves sitting at the window and watching the other birds.”
Amateur photographer Mark Bridger, 44, from Kent, had quite a fright when he saw the big round face at the window.
“I looked around and saw this face at the window, then suddenly realised it was an owl. It gave me quite a shock,” he said.
“You don’t normally expect to see an owl in a house. He looked quite ghostly.”
Mail bag snake scares postal workers
Clerks at a post office in South Africa fled for safety when they emptied a mail bag and a snake came slithering out.
The one metre non-venomous white python was one of four sent this week in an express parcel that arrived at the Sabie Post Office, northeast of Johannesburg.
Sabie branch manager Mthobisi Duba said the sorting room employees were out of the door as soon as the snake hit the floor.
“This was the most traumatic experience ever in the post office,” Duba said in a statement.
An official from the local parks board collected the white python and the three other smaller snakes still in the parcel. The parks board is taking care of the reptiles.
The receiver of the parcel was charged with the illegal transport of animals, South Africa’s post service said.
Helicopter rescues boy’s toy plane
A video of a helicopter pilot rescuing a little boy’s brand new toy plane which had got stuck in a tree is going viral.
The two-man chopper was passing by a mansion surrounded by woodland in the US when they saw the boy crash the plane.
The scaled-down P51 Mustang was snagged at the very top of the trees and the pilot knew that it would be unlikely to get the plane back from the ground.
So, swooping low, the pilot hovered over the tree-tops while his co-pilot picked up the toy plane.
“Do you think I’ll have permission to land now,” he jokes as they take the chopper down to return the toy to its owner.
The boy and his family rush to greet them, and can hardly believe their luck.
The rescue has been viewed on YouTube more than 1.2million times.
Post published in: Opinions & Analysis