Court rules on who owns rabbit warren

A HUNTER has lost his legal bid for compensation from a farmer who destroyed a rabbit warren on communal land with a mechanical digger.

Prosecutors had called for the farmer to be hit with a fine for "destruction of another's property".

The dairy farmer, from Nort-sur-Erdre in the Loire-Atlantique, was furious that the rabbits in woodland next to his farm were causing damage to his farm and livelihood.

He razed the rabbit warrens to the ground in April 2011 - but was then surprised to receive a legal complaint from a local hunter, who argued that he had broken the law because the land did not belong to him.

The Loire-Atlantique criminal court rejected the claim for damages and the farmer was cleared.