"Mr. Adams, whose 1972 bestseller brought rabbits to the forefront of
literature, sees the coming slaughter of rabbits in England as a
"regrettable necessity."
In October, rabbit warrens in the country's rural South Downs area will be
destroyed with cyanide gas to bring the rabbit population there under
control.
It's a measure Mr. Adams, 78, accepts with equanimity.
"I've never been one of these sentimentalists. I'm not a fluffy bunny sort
of person at all," Mr. Adams told a London newspaper. "If I saw a rabbit in
my garden, I'd shoot it."
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Kill off 'infuriating' rabbits, Watership Down author says
Man behind beloved novel supports cyanide cull
Bruce Ward
Friday 14 August 1998
The Ottawa Citizen
It may come as a shock to the millions who loved his book, but Richard Adams is 'not a fluffy bunny sort of person at all.'
England's Rabbits Lose Their Greatest Ally: The rabbit Fiver, shown here in a still from the film version of Watership Down, looks down in horror at a rabbit warren running red with blood. Now, in the part of England where the book is set, exterminators plan to flood rabbit warrens with cyanide gas to kill off an out-of-control rabbit population -- a move Richard Adams, who wrote the book, calls 'a regrettable necessity.'
Run, Fiver, run. Bigwig, be very afraid. Thousands of rabbits are awaiting extermination in England, and Watership Down author Richard Adams is turning his back.
Mr. Adams, whose 1972 bestseller brought rabbits to the forefront of literature, sees the coming slaughter of rabbits in England as a "regrettable necessity."
In October, rabbit warrens in the country's rural South Downs area will be destroyed with cyanide gas to bring the rabbit population there under control.
It's a measure Mr. Adams, 78, accepts with equanimity.
"I've never been one of these sentimentalists. I'm not a fluffy bunny sort of person at all," Mr. Adams told a London newspaper. "If I saw a rabbit in my garden, I'd shoot it."
In 1972, Mr. Adams chronicled the quest of a rebel band of Berkshire rabbits for a new home, a warren where they could live in peace.
The fantasy, with its allegorical overtones, caught the public's fancy, and Watership Down became an international besteller. An animated film version of the book was made in 1978.
But the rabbits apparently have lost their greatest ally.
"When they see a row of lettuces they have an annoying habit of taking a bite out of each one them moving on," said Mr. Adams, who lives in a village in Hampshire, where Watership Down is set.
"It would make it less infuriating if they ate the whole thing, but no, they take a little nibble out of them all.
"It's a habit, a bit like cocaine. Once they start, they want more and more."
Watership Down, Mr. Adams's first book, began as a tale he told to his daughters on a car trip. It carries the dedication "To Juliet and Rosamond, remembering the road to Stratford-on-Avon."
Besides selling millions of copies, the book was also a literary success, enchanting the critics. "Magically well made and memorable," gushed the New York Times. The Manchester Guardian called it "a great book ... A whole world is created, perfectly real in itself, yet constituting a deep incidental comment on human affairs."
Mr. Adams's views on the fate of the South Down rabbits mirror the bloody world he created in Watership Down.
His fictional rabbits are shot, gassed, and choked in snares. When the bucks battle, they rip each other with their claws.
At the Swan's Hotel pub in the village of Kingsclere -- near the top of the actual Watership Down -- there was strong support yesterday for Mr. Adams.
"It's not our patch, but there's too many rabbits there in the South Downs," local resident Martin Boyce said in a telephone interview.
"They should have done something before. Now they have to get rid of the rabbits, as Mr. Adams is saying."
Don't count out the rabbits just yet.
In one of the book's most famous passages, Dandelion recounts the story of how Frith, "who made the world," blesses El-ahrairah, the Prince Rabbit.
"All the world will be your enemy, Prince With a Thousand Enemies. And wherever they catch you, they will kill you.
"But first, they must catch you -- digger, listener, runner, Prince with the
swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks, and your people will never be
destroyed."
****************************************
My afternoon with Richard Adams by Jamie Cohen Spring 1999 (House Rabbit
Society)
"Richard professes to have done a lot for animal welfare. Besides helping to
make it very difficult to buy a fur coat in London now, from 1980 to 1982,
Richard served as president of the Royal Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals. I told them how I got into animal rights because of
rabbits. "I learned of them using rabbits in animal testing, putting them in
stockades and dripping things in their eyes. I know they all have sweet
little personalities like my rabbits." He agreed that testing on them is
terrible. He is very aware intense confinement issues, human health,
environmental issues. He said, "Plague Dogs was deliberately set up to
satirize animal experimentation as well as government and tabloid press. It
was set up at England's lake district where Elizabeth and I went on our
honeymoon."
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