RABBIT POISONING AND THE PUBLIC HEALTH.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11659, 16 February 1900, Page 6

RABBIT POISONING AND THE PUBLIC HEALTH.

TO THE' KDITOIi. Sib,—Now that the rabbit-exporting industry has. assumed such large proportions, and since it1 bids fair to act as a reasonable check on the multiplication of Ihe rodent, it may well claim the attention of the Government, and especially as to whether the plan recommended and enforced by the inspectors, of pollard poisoning late m the season, should be permitted. Without calling in question its destructive agency, when seasonably usedalthousjh from an economic standpoint as well as on the ground of cruelty, it may well be disimted —it appears fraught with great danger to the public health if allowed when trapping has commenced. I am informed pressure is being put on the manager of a very large estate in this district by a local rabbit inspector to use the pollard poison on through March, on the first of which trapping for Home exportation is about to be commenced —an estate interlaced and overlapped by settlers, —so that it stands to reason that many rabbits after having taken the poison will find their way into tiie traps, and so be banded in for exportation. Without assuming that this is being done to discredit a growing and profitable industry, which is now giving employment to many and proving a legitimate source of revenue, it must be allowed that it is a serious menace to the public health—affecting Home consumers, —and not unlikely to prove directly injurious or followed by fatal consequences. In my judgment, the matter should at once'receive the attention of the Government, lest serious consequences follow. Pollard or other poisoning should, I contend, be discontinued for a reasonable time before the commencement of "trapping, and on no account should the health of the public—our consumers 'at Home—be endangered. ' Although not pecuniarily interested in the trade, the export of rabbits is a subject which I-have repeatedly drawn public attention to, in a 'Southland contemporary, with a view to recommend that the rabbits be bled to death. Your Readers will have noticed in your columns the report of 5000 crates being condemned on arrival at Home, recently. Although I learn that this loss does not fall on the exporter, but on insurance, presumably from faulty insulation during the voyage, it would be interesting to know whether Victorinn rabbits—which are bled to' death immediately after the neclc has been dislocated, whilst the heart is still beating and the fluidnot congealed—do not arrive in better condition. Information on the subject might he gathered nearer homo, for one Victorian firm in our midst is careful to secure this, and. might supply what is needed for contrast—the crucial experiment. How is it. it may well be asked, that Victorian rabbits fetcli 2d apiece more than New Zealand when retailed at Home? It ought to bo the reverse of this, and would be, I firmly believe, if the rabbits were bled to death. An exporter tells me he would give 2d a couple more to the trappers if he could get them to be at the trouble to bleed them. If the carcases of mutton in the same freezing chambers were sound, it is clearly not the fault of the freezing during transit. Trusting that your insertion of this may inaoV to the prompt attention by the authorities, with a view to the prevention of serious consequences, which it demands. —I am, etc., J. Ward, ivf.D, Riversdale, February 15.