April 16, 2006
Last week, in time for Easter thoughts of cuddly bunnies, images of armed hunters like this gentleman below, were broadcast around the world.
The hunt for the giant rabbit said to be destroying the gardens of Felton, UK, was on.
Under headlines like “Giant Rabbit Terrorizes Village” and “World Goes Crazy For Wor Rabbit,” the media informed an anxious public that:
A “monster” rabbit has apparently been rampaging through vegetable patches in a small village in northern England, ripping up leeks, munching turnips and infuriating local gardeners.
“They call it the monster. It’s very big — it’s nearly the size of a dog,” said Joan Smith, whose son Jeff owns one of the plots under attack.
“It’s eating everything, all the vegetables,” she told Reuters. “They are trying to shoot it. They go along hoping to catch it but I think it’s too crafty.”
And then accounts a few days later noted:
Jeff Smith, who [was] the first man to spot the giant – dubbed wor rabbit – has been at the centre of the whirlwind, receiving 51 phone calls on Thursday and 31 on Friday. He has been contacted by people in New Zealand, Russia and Australia all interested in the creature’s fate….Meanwhile, the rabbit remains at large and has been continuing its night time raids.”
However, reliable reports indicate this rabbit is not as large as the following example depicted in a rare archival postcard.
Read the rest of the giant rabbit story here and here.
Happy Easter, Passover, May Day/Labor Day, and Beltane/Bealtaine/Bealltainn to all.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Filed under Breaking News, CryptoZoo News, Cryptozoology, Expedition Reports, Eyewitness Accounts, Media Appearances, Pop Culture, Swamp Monsters