Babbit Poisoning and Public Health.

Otago Witness, Issue 2399, 22 February 1900, Page 7

Babbit Poisoning and Public Health.

TO THE EDITOR

Sir, — Now that the rabbit-exporting industry has assumed such large proportions, and since it bids fair to act as a reasonable check on the multiplication of the 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 in the season, should be permitted. Without calling in question its destructive agency, when seasonably used— although from an economic standpoint as well as on the ground of cruelty, it may well be disputed, — it appears fraught with great danger to the irablic 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 haying taken the poison will find their way into the traps, and so be handed in for exportation.

Without as&auning 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 — otu % consumers at Horne — 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 lo»s does not fall oil the exporter, but on insurance, presumably from faulty insulation during the voyage, it would be interesting to know whether Victorian rabbits — which are bled to death immediately after the neck has been dislocated, whPst the heart is still beating and the fluid not congealed- — :lo not arrive ' in better condition. Information on the subject might be gathered nearer home, for one Victoiinn firm in our midst is careful to secure this, and might supply what is needed for contrast — the crucial expetiment. How is it, it may -nell be asked, that Victorian rabbits fetch 2d apiece more than New Zealand when retailed at Home? It ought to be the reverse of this, and would be, [ firmly hplie\ c, 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 cai'cases of mutton id tho same freezing chambers, were souncl, it is clearly not the fault of the freezing during transit. Trusting that your insertion of this may load to the prompt attention by the authorities, with a view to the prevention of serious consequences, which it demands. — I aro, etc., J. Waed, Af.D. - Riveivdale, February 15.

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