The "Beast of Felton", a giant rabbit terrorising a Northumberland village, just like the movie "Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit", has been run over by a car -
Daily Mail
Paul Sims
19th May 2006
Night after night it stalked the village allotments, devouring rows of onions, parsnips and spring carrots.
But the Curse of the Felton Were-Rabbit appears to be over.
The ravenous beast with an appetite for lovingly grown crops appears to have met a timely end.
Its demise, however, is not credited to the armed guards recruited to watch over the prize vegetables in the tiny Northumberland village.
Instead the rabbit, said to measure a whopping two feet, was mown down by a car.
The impact was so great that it cracked 18-year old Rael Rawlinson's bumper.
Miss Rawlinson, an A-Level student from nearby Alnwick, said: "I saw a massive rabbit run out across the road in front of me. It was abnormally large.
It couldn't stop in time so it ended up squashed beneath my wheels." Her story explains the sudden disappearance of the black and brown monster from the allotments it had been terrorising.
Jeff Amith, an allotment holder on Felton for 25 years, first spotted the giant rabbit in February.
After it left vegetable crops devastated, it ebcame known as the Were-Rabbit, after the giant fluffy monster in the latest Wallace and Gromit movie.
Eventually a dozen gardeners clubbed together to bring in an armed watch at the allotments. They had orders to "shoot to kill."
"It was absolutely massive," said Mr Smith. "The first time I saw it I wasn't sure what it was. I thought to myself "what the hell is that?" I have seen its prints and they are huge. It is a brute of a thing."
Mr Smith felt the threat was so serious he reported the sighting to Felton Parish Council which agreed to allow two licensed gamekeepers to hunt it down.
Although the apparent death of the rabbit has brought a collective sigh of relief, one villager believes the curse may not be over.
"We've not a problem for the last couple of weeks so it looks like the lassie has killed the thing," said George Brown, 76.
"It looks like he's been busy though. I've never seen so many baby rabbits."
dailymail.co.uk
Daily Mail
Paul Sims
19th May 2006
Night after night it stalked the village allotments, devouring rows of onions, parsnips and spring carrots.
But the Curse of the Felton Were-Rabbit appears to be over.
The ravenous beast with an appetite for lovingly grown crops appears to have met a timely end.
Its demise, however, is not credited to the armed guards recruited to watch over the prize vegetables in the tiny Northumberland village.
Instead the rabbit, said to measure a whopping two feet, was mown down by a car.
The impact was so great that it cracked 18-year old Rael Rawlinson's bumper.
Miss Rawlinson, an A-Level student from nearby Alnwick, said: "I saw a massive rabbit run out across the road in front of me. It was abnormally large.
It couldn't stop in time so it ended up squashed beneath my wheels." Her story explains the sudden disappearance of the black and brown monster from the allotments it had been terrorising.
Jeff Amith, an allotment holder on Felton for 25 years, first spotted the giant rabbit in February.
After it left vegetable crops devastated, it ebcame known as the Were-Rabbit, after the giant fluffy monster in the latest Wallace and Gromit movie.
Eventually a dozen gardeners clubbed together to bring in an armed watch at the allotments. They had orders to "shoot to kill."
"It was absolutely massive," said Mr Smith. "The first time I saw it I wasn't sure what it was. I thought to myself "what the hell is that?" I have seen its prints and they are huge. It is a brute of a thing."
Mr Smith felt the threat was so serious he reported the sighting to Felton Parish Council which agreed to allow two licensed gamekeepers to hunt it down.
Although the apparent death of the rabbit has brought a collective sigh of relief, one villager believes the curse may not be over.
"We've not a problem for the last couple of weeks so it looks like the lassie has killed the thing," said George Brown, 76.
"It looks like he's been busy though. I've never seen so many baby rabbits."
dailymail.co.uk
