Korean farmer: Jet noise killed 100,000 rabbits

[unhappycamper]

Korean farmer: Jet noise killed 100,000 rabbits
By Jimmy Norris and Hwang Hae-rym, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, February 21, 2009

SEOUL — Thousands of bunnies in Kunsan have literally been scared to death by aircraft noise, according to rabbit farmer Lee Ho-kyung.

And he wants compensation.

Raising rabbits for 17 years, Lee said he’d never had problems with them dying until he moved to Kunsan in 2004 to care for his ailing father. His farm is about half a mile from a runway shared by the 8th Fighter Wing and South Korea’s 38th Fighter Group.

Since then, he said, he’s lost more than 100,000 rabbits. A 2008 autopsy, he said, determined the rabbits died as the result of "stress caused by external factors," not disease.

While rabbits are known for their ability to multiply, Lee’s stock continuesto decline, as he is unable to breed more. Infertility rates are up 30 percent among his rabbits. Even those that remain fertile don’t stay mothers for long.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60850