OPOSSUM TRAPPING

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 80, 2 October 1933, Page 8

OPOSSUM TRAPPING

"Haying-read in the 'Evening Post' letters from 'Possum' and Mr. Howell, acting president of the. S.P.C.A., I accompanied a trapper-on/his round to collect liis catch 01 opossums. What I saw convinced'me that it is the- most revolting i cruelty that any dumb animal could suffer (writes "Animal Lover"').- . . Eight out of nine ; caught were mutilated or maimed and must have suffered excruciating pain. These traps are set for action • before dark, and the victim is probably suffering for hours until put out of misery the following day. I don't think there is any member of the Acclimatisation Society who would allow this cruel, method of capture to be used if he_or she. gave the- matter serious consideration. As Mr. Howell: says, the cruelty is avoidable. The teeth are not necessary for the loop of the spring acts as a, lock. , The jaws can be covered with rubber, and so grip the limb without mangling it. Box traps can be made for only a fraction more cost than the traps. Thousands of opossums are taken by cyanide poisoning in Australia. The Acclimatisation Societies in New Zealand prohibit this method, and say that it frightens the other, opossums 'away. This matter should warrant the intervention of the S.P.C.A. societies throughout the country. If they put the matter before the M.P. in .the„ district they operate in, I am sure that a, Bill would go before the House to humanely control this business, and not one member would refuse to support it." .

"Angki-Argentine"'proteßtsyagaiiisfc the inconsistency of imposing penalties' for cruelty to animals and approving legally a method o£ trapping which entails a lm,fferiu" death. "Envious foreigners call us hypocrites and the more charitably disposed say that we are 'inconsistent m condemning bull-fighting, which provides a thrill and 'is commercially profitable. There is no thrill in battering; the' remaining life out or a cowering opossum after it has been struggling for hours in the grip of a steel trap; It is quite, impossible to remove the cause or tins licensed cruelty (vanity) but there us no reason why trapped fur should not be subjected to the highest tax of any known luxury."