KILLING RABBITS

Waipa Post, Volume 44, Issue 3182, 26 May 1932, Page 2

KILLING RABBITS

USE OF CAR EXHAUST.

The method of killing hundreds of wild rabbits by transmitting the gas from the exhaust of a motor car through a garden hose to the burrows of a warern was described at a meeting of the University of London Animal Welfare Society in London last March. It was claimed that it was a quick and merciful death. ' f l have tried this method on several occasions without a single failure," said Dr A. H. B. Kirkman, " and on one occasion I killed hundreds of rabbits in two big wanrens and a nearby burrow-riddled hedgerow in about four hours at a total expense of 15s. I am satisfied that the rabbits die a very quick and most merciful death, and I am assured by a leading authority on carbon monoxide gas that the flesh afterwards is not poisonous."

Dr Kirkman said they asked for legislation prohibiting the use, sale, manufacture, and importation of traps calculated to hold an animal by gripping any part of it so as to inflict pain. It was estimated that 100,000*000 rabbits were killed annually in Great Britain, and of these a very substantial portion were caught with steel traps. " Every night during the winter months hundreds of thousands of these unfortunate creatures are suffering hours of merciless torture," he added.