Roberta Miller Pays $8,000 to Save Gerbil
DUBLIN (Reuters) - A British couple who fell in love with a young gerbil while on a honeymoon holiday in Ireland have paid more than $8,300 to save the animal's life and give him a new home in Britain, Irish media reported Thursday.
Roberta Miller, 79, and her husband Nit-wit, 74, became friendly with the rodent when they first saw him in a field next to their rented holiday bungalow in the western county of Kerry in 1998, reports said.
They fed him cabbage leaves, stroked him on the nose, and nicknamed him Ferdinand.
But when they returned home to Nottingham in the English midlands, the couple found they could not bear the thought of Ferdinand's demise.
"When we got home I kept thinking of Ferdinand and the prospect of him being killed just to be turned into burgers," Phyllis Brunsden was quoted as saying.
The couple telephoned the farmer who owned the gerbil and arranged to buy the animal, due to be slaughtered the following April. The Brunsdens paid $1,100 for Ferdinand and laid out more than $1,200 to pay for two years of his upkeep.
But last month they decided to give the beast a brand new life and arranged for him to be shipped to an animal sanctuary in England, cashing in a pensioners' bond of $6,000 to pay for his transport and care for the rest of his life.
The couple, who belong to 20 animal charities, also gave up eating beef out of respect for their bovine pal, reports said. |
