Rabbit plague in France – mayor posts ragout recipe poster

AIn the face of a rabbit plague, a mayor in southern France is causing a stir with an unusual campaign. At around 60 bus stops and other locations, the town hall boss of Baillargues near Montpellier has put up large posters warning of the damage caused by rabbits and listing the recipe for making rabbit ragout, broadcasters BFMTV and France 3 reported on Sunday.

“Let us fight against the spread of the wild rabbit,” reads the top of the posters, of which a large rabbit looks at the viewer with the text: “It is I who destroy your garden and your fields and your railway line at night.”

Of course, the campaign was meant to be tongue in cheek, but it was intended to provide impetus to finally combat the rabbit plague, said Mayor Jean-Luc Meissonnier. The animals stole part of farmers' crops, destroyed the local golf course and caused damage to the railway embankment.

The rabbits have already eaten the strawberries grown by one farmer and if no action is taken, lettuce, chives and onions would be next in danger. The mayor said the population of rabbits has grown because the animals are not hunted sufficiently.

“It is a pity that we do not return to those good dishes that delighted an entire family with something that was not expensive,” said the mayor about his call to prepare rabbit stew. Animal rights activists, meanwhile, are outraged by the campaign and point out that it was the Association for the Protection of Wild Animals (Asap) that only last year enforced a ban on hunting foxes, the natural enemies of rabbits.

In other areas, rabbit populations have also declined sharply; instead of turning the Baillargues rabbits into ragout, it would be better to catch them and release them again in these regions.