When I first saw the story in The Sun ‘Rabbit flu was revenge’ I thought it must be a sick joke. For a start, I’d heard of bird flu but not rabbit flu. But I checked and found the sad news on BBC Online that a young farmer had indeed died from so-called rabbit flu (caused by a bacterium called Pasteurella multocida) earlier this month. The sick twist to this story is that, according to today’s Sun report, animal rights extremists have been tormenting the young man’s distressed parents with phone calls telling them his death was ‘the rabbit’s revenge’ (they claimed he’d been culling rabbits). How low can they go?

The disease, also known as pasteurellosis, is apparently common in cats and dogs, but it is quite uncommon for it to pass to humans (about 400 cases a year recorded in the UK). According to the Health Protection Agency it is treatable with antibiotics and fatalities are extremely rare. In this case it developed into a fatal septicaemia. I assume the young farmer, John Freeman, did not get the antibiotics that would have saved him, or was treated too late. Ironic really, considering that all antibiotics, from streptomycin and penicillin onwards, have been developed and tested using animals.