To Jack Do Not Condemn The Rabbit Poem by Francis Duggan

To Jack Iversen do not condemn the rabbit
For with you he is bound to disagree
I've often heard him say back in the lean years
The bunny was a real good friend to me.

Back in the fifties he can still remember
When jobs were scarce and workers underpaid
He quit his job with a stingy local farmer
And more money out of trapping rabbits made.

Before the introduction of the myxomatosis
The rabbit a huge part in some lives played
A cruel disease that wiped out most of the wild bunnies
And brought an end to the wild rabbit trade.

But still the rabbits are the great survivors
And despite man's persecution they live on
They've survived myxomatosis and the clavixal virus
When it was felt that all hope for them had gone.

And that they survived Jack Iversen feels happy
And of the rabbit he has good to say
In the hard times he made more out of trapping
Than stingy farmer was prepared to pay.