Rabbit Killing. TO THE EDITOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2401, 8 March 1900, Page 15

Rabbit Killing. TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, — I am sorry to see that Mesaia White and Co., in their circular to rabbit trappers; say, "It is well, when rabbits are killed, to stick behind the ear to bleed, and, after 20 minutes, gut," etc. This sort of alow bleeding to death is, I think, a very cruel manner of killing animals. The rabbits have a hard enough, time of it in the traps without subjecting them to this additional pain. Ido .not think, also, that it is good for the moral© of people to kill animals in this manner, and watch them ' dying *a lingering death, especially as many children trap rabbits. It is not well to have children trapping rabbits at all, but this, under present circumstances, cannot be hMped. The present mode of killing rabbits adopted by rabbiters is to take the rabbit in one hand, and with the other give the neck a. twist round, which, if done by people who understand the knack, seems to kill the rabbit; : instantly, breaking the neck. If the rabbits are properly gutted and the other directions of Messrs White and Co. obseived, I do not think this slow bleeding to death i« an absohite necessity, and might very well bs dispensed with. I never heard or knew ol rabbits beinc killed

in the Home country by this mode of bleeding io death. —l am, etc., COLONUS. liarch 1.