His ballad accompanied images of rabbits bravely battling their way to freedom in the film Watership Down. A spokeswoman said Batt, 59, felt terrible about the cull and hoped animal lovers would not criticise him. "His estate was over-run by lots of rabbits," she said. "He deeply regretted it but he had to do it."

She said the rabbits had damaged property and had even chewed through electric cables. It is not known how many have been shot. The real Watership Down, which is said to have inspired Richard Adams's novel, is on composer Andrew Lloyd Webber's estate, ten miles from Batt's in Farnham, Surrey.

Adams wrote the book - about rabbits whose home is destroyed by property developers - in 1972 and it became an animated film in 1978. Bright Eyes, which was sung by Art Garfunkel, topped the charts 30 years ago this week. Two million copies have been sold around the world.

The rabbit population in Britain is estimated to have soared to 45million. They are said to wreck crops, destroy trees and poison soil. Natural England, a conservation group, said they cost the agricultural economy around £100million a year.

The vicious bastard! First Katie Melua and know this!

He showed no sentimentality about his early career either.

The original was here