The rabbits that ruined sports day
A SCHooL was forced to cancel its sports day – after rabbits ruined the playing field.
Dozens of warrens have been dug under the running track, leaving holes and bare patches.
now Cranborne Middle School, in Dorset, has cancelled sports day amid health and safety fears that children could trip over the holes.
The school has been plagued by rabbits for a year, and despite the caretaker filling in holes as they appear, his epic task has been compared to the painting of the Forth Bridge.
Desperate for a solution, staff even recruited a gamekeeper in a bid to flush out the nuisance animals and tried to cull numbers with ferrets, gas and even guns.
But none of their methods have proved effective.
The school has now banned all sports lessons and afterschool clubs from the field.
In a letter to parents, head teacher Craig Watson said: ‘We have always shared the field with our furry friends but this year, there are significantly more than ever before and they are digging countless holes. As fast as we fill the holes, more are dug. We have even resorted to our caretaker spending an inordinate amount of his daily hours trying to keep the field usable every day by filling holes with pieces of turf, but overnight the rabbits just undo his efforts taking us back to square one every morning.’
Mr Watson even admitted: ‘There have been a few instances of children stumbling into a rabbit hole and hurting themselves and obviously, we cannot risk further, more serious injury to children or visitors to school.’
‘This decision has not been taken lightly. We know how much children enjoy using the field for lessons, clubs and socially.’
He added: ‘However, their health and safety is of paramount importance. We are eager to resolve this issue as soon as possible.’
Mr Watson said an official from Dorset County Council had also surveyed the field and deemed it unfit for use.
But while the school told parents that the playing field cannot be used until the end of this academic year, they planned to make sure that it was restored to a usable condition by the autumn term.