Parents of ‘rabbit flu’ victim targeted by animal activists

ANIMAL rights activists have targeted the parents of Britain’s first known human victim of “rabbit flu”, with telephone callers telling them his death was a “rabbit’s revenge”.

John Freeman, 29, died after becoming infected with the bacteria pasteurella multocida after picking up a rabbit on his farm. He fell ill the next day with a fever and died three days later.

His parents Joan and Peter Freeman, who farm at Aspall, near Stowmarket in Suffolk, spoke out following their son’s death to appeal for greater awareness of the bacterium that caused his death.