Armed alert for beast on the allotments
Daily Telegraph UK
By Paul Stokes
(Filed: 07/04/2006)
Armed guards have been drafted on to a village's allotments in a scene worthy of the Wallace and Gromit film The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
Leeks and turnips have been ripped from the ground while Japanese onions, parsnips and spring carrots have been devoured.
The main clues to the culprit are paw prints the size of a deer's and sightings of a cross between a hare and a rabbit with one ear larger than the other.
The creature's rampage through the prize vegetable plots of Felton, near Morpeth, Northumberland, has prompted drastic action.
A dozen allotment holders have clubbed together to bring in a pair of air rifle marksmen with orders to shoot to kill.
Such is the threat posed to the amateur horticulturists by the black and brown creature that it has even became the subject of debate at this week's parish council meeting.
Four allotment holders have reported seeing it in the past three months and one woman was shocked to see the creature bounding across her lawn in the rain early one morning.
Jeff Smith, 63, who has kept an allotment for 25 years and who first saw it in February, said: "This is no ordinary rabbit. We are dealing with a monster.
"It is absolutely massive, the first time I saw it I thought to myself 'What the hell is that?'.
"I have seen its prints and they are huge, bigger than a hare, about the size of a deer. It is a brute of a thing.
"We have two lads here with guns who are trying to shoot it, but it is clever. They never see it. There were big rabbits in the 1950s and 1960s before pesticides were introduced, but not like this."
Mr Smith raised the issue with Felton Parish Council on Monday, telling members: "When we get it killed, when we shoot it, we are going to hang it up on a tree so folk can see it. Mind you, it would make a good meal."
The village, on a fertile coastal plain, is no stranger to the siege mentality, having gone up in flames in the 13th century when King John sent an army to lay it to waste after local barons paid homage to the King of Scotland, Alexander.
George Brown, 76, who has had an allotment for more than 20 years, saw the beast munching on the grass in his back garden.
"I chased after it, but it was just too fast for me," he said. "There's two good lads keeping an eye out for it so we'll nail him, don't worry about that."
As one of the "good lads" stalked the allotments hoping to get the hopping hybrid in his sights yesterday, Brian Cadman, 17, an underkeeper, said: "Only a couple of people have seen it so far but I've seen the evidence and I think it's going to be a biggy.
"I've been out for the last three nights with another underkeeper. Our instructions are to shoot it on sight, but we've not had much luck yet.
"You can see what it's been eating. It's been taking huge bites out of cabbages, carrots and turnips. It's a hungry fella'.
"I've seen its footprints, too, and they look like the size of a dog's, I can't wait to see it so I can put a stop to it. It's ruining some of the allotments, so the sooner we can find it the better."
In the 2005 Wallace and Gromit film, a vegetable-ravaging beast plagues the neighbourhood ahead of the annual Giant Vegetable Competition and the eponymous heroes leap into action with their pest-control enterprise, "Anti-pesto".
Daily Telegraph UK
By Paul Stokes
(Filed: 07/04/2006)
Armed guards have been drafted on to a village's allotments in a scene worthy of the Wallace and Gromit film The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
Leeks and turnips have been ripped from the ground while Japanese onions, parsnips and spring carrots have been devoured.
The main clues to the culprit are paw prints the size of a deer's and sightings of a cross between a hare and a rabbit with one ear larger than the other.
The creature's rampage through the prize vegetable plots of Felton, near Morpeth, Northumberland, has prompted drastic action.
A dozen allotment holders have clubbed together to bring in a pair of air rifle marksmen with orders to shoot to kill.
Such is the threat posed to the amateur horticulturists by the black and brown creature that it has even became the subject of debate at this week's parish council meeting.
Four allotment holders have reported seeing it in the past three months and one woman was shocked to see the creature bounding across her lawn in the rain early one morning.
Jeff Smith, 63, who has kept an allotment for 25 years and who first saw it in February, said: "This is no ordinary rabbit. We are dealing with a monster.
"It is absolutely massive, the first time I saw it I thought to myself 'What the hell is that?'.
"I have seen its prints and they are huge, bigger than a hare, about the size of a deer. It is a brute of a thing.
"We have two lads here with guns who are trying to shoot it, but it is clever. They never see it. There were big rabbits in the 1950s and 1960s before pesticides were introduced, but not like this."
Mr Smith raised the issue with Felton Parish Council on Monday, telling members: "When we get it killed, when we shoot it, we are going to hang it up on a tree so folk can see it. Mind you, it would make a good meal."
The village, on a fertile coastal plain, is no stranger to the siege mentality, having gone up in flames in the 13th century when King John sent an army to lay it to waste after local barons paid homage to the King of Scotland, Alexander.
George Brown, 76, who has had an allotment for more than 20 years, saw the beast munching on the grass in his back garden.
"I chased after it, but it was just too fast for me," he said. "There's two good lads keeping an eye out for it so we'll nail him, don't worry about that."
As one of the "good lads" stalked the allotments hoping to get the hopping hybrid in his sights yesterday, Brian Cadman, 17, an underkeeper, said: "Only a couple of people have seen it so far but I've seen the evidence and I think it's going to be a biggy.
"I've been out for the last three nights with another underkeeper. Our instructions are to shoot it on sight, but we've not had much luck yet.
"You can see what it's been eating. It's been taking huge bites out of cabbages, carrots and turnips. It's a hungry fella'.
"I've seen its footprints, too, and they look like the size of a dog's, I can't wait to see it so I can put a stop to it. It's ruining some of the allotments, so the sooner we can find it the better."
In the 2005 Wallace and Gromit film, a vegetable-ravaging beast plagues the neighbourhood ahead of the annual Giant Vegetable Competition and the eponymous heroes leap into action with their pest-control enterprise, "Anti-pesto".
