CRUELTY TO BIRDS

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 May 1937, Page 14

CRUELTY TO BIRDS

TRAPPED IN RABBIT TRAPS Complaints of gross cruelty to wild birds are made by members of natural history societies in Melbourne against officials of the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works. It is stated (relates the Melbourne ‘Argus’) that at the Yan Yean reservoir birds are caught by the feet in rabbit traps and die slowly and painfully while hanging dead downward. A member of the Field Naturalists’ Club and the Ornithologists’ Union told members of each organisation that when on a visit to Yan Yean recently he saw at least 20 rabbit traps on posts in the water, and in many of them cormorants were held, fluttering and shrieking, by the feet. This continued for as long as two hours, lie thought it probable that valuable species, such as herons and spoonbills, were sometimes trapped and killed.

Members of the council of the Ornithologists’ Union claimed that even if the birds polluted the water or ate too many fish, there was no justification for breaking their legs in steel traps and condemning them to a slow death. The council agreed to protest to the Board of Works.

While it is generally believed that rabbits do not suffer much pain when caught, because the trapped leg goes numb and the animal simply lies on the ground, such a point cannot be raised, in regard to the trapping of birds on posts, since the captives must necessarily suffer as they hang head downward, with beating wings, for hour after hour.

The chairman of the Board of Works (Mr. D. Bell) said that the birds were a. serious pest at the reservoir, and that if they were left unmolested they would kill all the fish in the lake. The only practicable way to catch them was by placing traps on stakes. There was no excessive cruelty about this—the board would certainly not sanction any cruelty. The traps were inspected regularly. and often the birds were drowned when they hung from the stakes.