Sir, Recently I wrote about the badger, their good points and their bad points and this week I will highlight on the wild rabbits that once roamed our countryside in large numbers.

They were looked upon by the farmers as pests and they went to great lengths to try and control them I must add without success.

The reason for this was twofold, there were people who did not have to feed them were making money selling them for meat consumption and the traps they used also killed other wild animals that hunted the rabbits and therefor helped to control the numbers.

I have to admit that more rabbit meat was sold out of Pembrokeshire during the second great war than the total of lamb, beef and poultry sold and although looked upon as a pest by the farmers, they made a major contribution in feeding the nation during that crucial time.

Nature has a cruel way of controlling the numbers and in the case of the rabbit who lived down a dark hole without ventilation died in large numbers of a disease called mixamtoses and ever since when the number of rabbits increases it raises its ugly head and they die in large numbers, but some survive to keep the specie going.

The rabbit like the badger are now seen in small numbers and are no longer looked upon as the pest they once were and are accepted as part of the country seen and rabbits were known to be prolific breeders.

Sir Eric Howells CBE,