The rabbit swimming away from the President

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Jimmy Carter rabbit incident, dubbed the "killer rabbit"
attack by the media, involved a swamp rabbit that swam
toward thenU.S. President J immy Carter's fishing boat on
April 20, 1979. The incident caught press imagination after
Carter's press secretary mentioned the event to a correspondent
months later.
1 Background
2 Media accounts and public perception
3 See also
4 References
Carter had gone on a solo fishing expedition in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. According to the former
president, a rabbit being chased by hounds "jumped in the water and swam toward my boat. When he got almost
there, I splashed some water with a paddle."
[1]
Upon returning to his office, Carter's staff did not believe his story, insisting that rabbits couldn't swim, or that
they would never approach a person threateningly.
[2]
The incident was captured on footage taken by a White
House photographer.
[3]
Press Secretary J ody Powell mentioned the event to Associated Press correspondent Brooks J ackson on August
28, 1979, who filed the story with the wire service the following day. The story "President Attacked by Rabbit"
was carried across the front page of The Washington Post, though the White House's refusal to release the
photograph resulted in the newspaper using a cartoon parody of the Jaws poster labeled "PAWS" as its
illustration.
[4]
The White House still refused to release the photograph of the incident to the media until it
turned up during the Reagan administration and the story saw a revival.
In Press Secretary Powell's 1986 book The Other Side of the Story, he recounted the story as follows:
Upon closer inspection, the animal turned out to be a rabbit. Not one of your cutesy, Easter
Bunny-type rabbits, but one of those big splay-footed things that we called swamp rabbits when I
was growing up."
The animal was clearly in distress, or perhaps berserk. The President confessed to having had
J immy Carter rabbit incident - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J immy_Carter_rabbit_incident
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Carter shooing away the rabbit, at far right
limited experience with enraged rabbits. He was
unable to reach a definite conclusion about its
state of mind. What was obvious, however, was
that this large, wet animal, making strange hissing
noises and gnashing its teeth, was intent upon
climbing into the Presidential boat.
The incident with the rabbit became fodder for political
and ideological opponents who attempted to frame
Carter's presidency as hapless and enfeebled.
[5]
The incident was parodied in 1980 in a song by the folk singer Tom Paxton entitled "I Don't Want a Bunny
Wunny".
[6]
George H. W. Bush vomiting incident
Dick Cheney hunting incident
Rabbit of Caerbannog
^ J immy Carter explains 'rabbit attack' (http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/21/jimmy-carter-explains-rabbit-
attack/#more-136545)
1.
^ American Presidents Blog: President Carter and the Killer Rabbit (http://www.american-presidents.org/2008/01
/president-carter-and-killer-rabbit.html)
2.
^ President J immy Carter and the "killer rabbit" the true story, with the picture (http://www.narsil.org/index/peopl
/jimmycarter/killerrabbit)
3.
^ The Straight Dope: What was the deal with J immy Carter and the killer rabbit? (http://www.straightdope.com
/classics/a4_019.html)
4.
^ J immy Carter's 'Killer Rabbit' 1979 (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/frenzy
/carter2.htm)
5.
^ "I Don't Want a Bunny Wunny" (http://www.mydfz.com/Paxton/lyrics/idwabw.htm) song lyrics. 6.
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Categories: 1979 in the United States Individual rabbits J immy Carter Carter administration controversies
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