Full moons have long been associated with werewolves, vampires and witchcraft, but now the RSPCA says they could also be linked to a rise in animal abuse.
The charity has released statistics showing a correlation between an increase in reports of abuse and the lunar cycle. The RSPCA has found an average increase in calls so far this year of around 12 per cent, or 169 reports, when there has been a full moon.
RSPCA staff officer Dermot Murphy said: “It could be the fact there is increased light during the full moon so people out and about are more likely to spot an animal in distress, or the legend is true and it really does bring out the darker side of human nature.”
The link between full moons and extremes in human behaviour has been identified in past scientific studies.
Tour company has a hard sell
A tour company exhibiting for the first time at next week’s World Travel Market in London faces a tough task.
Not only is the company trying to promote trips to North Korea, it is doing so at a time when the hard-line Communist-run country has just banned all visitors due to the Ebola scare.
Nevertheless, Shanghai-based operator Experience North Korea was optimistic in advance of the four-day travel trade show, which opens at ExCeL exhibition centre. The company’s owner, Nathalie Armengol, said visits were “not only possible but safe”. She said: “We want to change people’s minds about North Korea.”
Discount store passes taste test
Discount store Lidl has done as well as posh nosh specialist Waitrose in a mass blind-tasting of indulgent Christmas foods.
BBC Good Food compared more than 240 festive treats from 11 supermarkets and both won three categories. Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury’s topped the list with four each.
Judges were impressed by Lidl’s £2.65 Best Smoked Salmon, the “stand-out favourite” £7.99 Christmas Pudding and its £3.99 panettone which “tears apart beautifully”.
Man’s best friend – not this time
A man on the run from police was found lurking in long grass – by his own pet dog.
When Edwin Henderson took off running from police in Prattville, Alabama, officers pointed at him and instructed his dog Bo to “go get him”. The dog ran off, but stopped and wagged his tail at a stretch of tall grass. Police swooped and promptly arrested Henderson and charged him with drug offences and failure to obey police.
Mummified arm in the spotlight
A well-preserved human forearm purportedly found shortly after the 1862 Battle of Antietam during the US Civil War is grabbing the Halloween spotlight at a museum.
The naturally mummified relic, which is on display at the National Museum of Civil War History in Maryland, is the centrepiece of its “Behind the Screams” Halloween tour. Museum officials also released findings of a scientific and historical investigation.
Smithsonian Institution anthropologists could not identify the arm’s owner or determine its authenticity as a battlefield relic. But they said it belonged to a white male aged about 16. It was previously displayed for decades at a roadside museum in Sharpsburg as The Arm of the Unknown Soldier.
Taches toasted in hall of fame
A new hall of fame dedicated to well-groomed upper lips is to be launched – on the birthday of moustachioed actor Burt Reynolds.
The American Moustache Institute (AMI) says it will unveil its inaugural class for the International Moustache Hall of Fame on February 11 next year.
The hall of fame will initially be online only, but the AMI says it is searching for a physical location. Nominations for the inaugural class are being accepted until November 30 at mustachehall.com.