The Natural Enemy.

Southland Times, Issue 9411, 8 January 1887, Page 3

The Natural Enemy.

(Evening Press)

The shocking mishap which occurred a few da3"s ago at Hnmpden in Otago, where a little child was dreadfully injured by a ferret, ia *-ure to be made the very most of by thoao who are opposed to the introduction of animals of the ferret kind os a means of dealing with the rabbit post. They have long contended that the remedy would prove woreu than tho cliseaae, beeaiHO tht'He ferocious creatures, swarming all over the country, would not only "destroy all the game and domestic poultry, but would just as soon kill lamba as rabbitp, and would not hesitate to at-t-ick chilrirm. It was in vaiDgto assure them that these feara were fanciful, and that the mu<telidoe confine their attentions instinctively to rabbits where they are to be fc*ot, and d»e off or are as easily killed oil, when a supply of their natural food fails. Having got hold of a good strong, healthy popular delusion as to tho indiscriminate blood-thrifctineas of all animals of the weasel tribe, they needed no facts to eupport their theory. Now, however, a fact, aad an extremely pain-ul one. has been, aa it were, providentially supplied to them. A ferret has attacked a chi'il in its cradle, and cruelly mutilated it. " Hnri'," it will be paid, <k is the result of briDging thr-se desteatable vermin into the country, and this is what may be expected to liapp n every day, when the ' natural enemy' shall have got the upper hand of the rabbits. Are poor helpless little children to be sacrificed iv this horrible manner, merely to increase the profits or diminish the losses of the sheepfarmers ?" From this point of view, and on this illogical method, the subject is doubtless capable of very forcible treatment. The truth is, neverthelesp, that the cad incident at Hampden has no practical bearing whatsoever on the question of coping with the rabbit nuisance by means of the natural enemy. It might have happened anywhere or at any time, just as it has happened frequently enough that children have teen bitten by dogs or rats or goied by cattle. The ferret that bit the child at Hampden was not one that had been turned out. It escaped from a cage, and was, presumably, a tame ferret, each as are coinmoDly kept on farms, and always have been, not only in districts infested by rabbits, but everywhere. There is always a danger of these attacking children, if they get loose and the opportunity is there. But such accidents, for so they must be deemed, do not effect the general question of employing them against the rabbits in tbe least. The Parliamentary committee who investigated that question took great pains to ascertain how ferrets which are turned oat to kill rabbits, behave themselves towards other creatures, and the evidence was entirely in their favour. It was shown that at Kaikoara, where there are thousands of wild ferrets, and where some of the (runs have been entirely cleared of rabbits by them, not a

single instance waa known of a lamb having been attacked. Game, of coarse, is destroyed, bat then so it is, just as effectively, by "spreading poiftoned grain which is not half so successful a means of dealing with the rabbits. The fact ie, ferretp, stoats, and weasels, especially stoats, reduce the number of rabbits more by harrying them than by killing them outright. A Btoat has been found to travel eighteen miles in twenty-four hours, and wherever it goes the rabbits fly in terror. A few stoata will keep all the rabbits over a large area ecurrying about, neither feeding nor breeding. Life is not worth having on 6uoh terms, and before long tho rabbits either die or leave for parts unknown. It is this which makes the stoat co valuable for clearing out the breeding places of the rabbits in mountain country inaccessible to man. It is not difficult to cope with rabbits on the low lands, but that is of little use if they have sanctuaries in the rocky summits, from whence fresh hordes coma down to take the place of those which are shot or poisoned. We are convinced that the natural enemy is the only real remedy for the rabbit nuisance, and we trust it will not be resorted to the less on account of an individual caße of injury to a child by a ferret.