British Hunter Suffocates Down Rabbit Hole

rabbit

In another bizarre hunting accident from Great Britain, a small game hunter died from getting stuck down a rabbit hole. 

Stephen Winfrey, age 50, was an experienced rabbit hunter using ferrets and dogs when he set off on New Year’s Day for a hunt at a beautiful location in Doncaster, England. When he failed to return for lunch, his family notified police and Winfrey was found by a member of the public, a recent coroner’s inquest found according to The Star newspaper.

Coroner Richard Hall told the Doncaster coroner’s court the man was “wedged in the hole with hardly any room at all,” the paper reports.

“We found a male head first in a hole, only his legs and torso were visible,” the coroner said. “He was at a 45 degree angle, curved around the hole.

“There was a hand coming out of the hole, in between the male’s legs. I could not see the other hand. There were scratch marks on the ground. It became obvious that the man was deceased.”

The man’s wellington boots and jacket were found beside the hole along with two bags containing ferrets, a space, knives and a net. His dog was tied to a nearby tree, he had a dead rabbit and there was a mound of soil next to the hole, the coroner reports.

A postmortem of the man showed he died of asphyxiation due to lack of oxygen.

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