Thursday, January 09, 2014

Paul-Félix Armand-Delille

He's the chap who deliberately infected rabbits on his French estate with the virus myxomotosis. And it worked. It wiped out ninety-something percent of his rabbits. Unfortunately for him and rabbits, the virus escaped and in a very short time devastated rabbit populations across northern Europe, including Britain. Poor old Paul-Felix, he's been hailed as a hero and vilified as a villain by turns ever since.
Poor old rabbits too. If you have seen a myxied rabbit, you will know what a pitiful sight it is. It seems that there is evidence that rabbits have developed a resistance to the virus, but there are still too many infected rabbits around for my taste. What seems to happen is that new bunnies are fine while they are above ground during the summer. But when they dive into the burrows in the autumn, they pick up the virus again.
One thing's for sure: we humans have no equals when it comes to buggering up the environment.




2 comments:

Unknown said...

I must go to France......to piss on his grave.

Jake Allsop said...

I share your indignation, but I leave you to do the deed!