CRUEL RABBIT TRAPS.
(TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Your correspondent of last week has rightly drawn atten- tion to the cruelty of the common " gin " rabbit-trap. The needful matter, however, is not merely to tell us that rewards have been offered by the R.S.P.C.A. (I believe, for many years in vain) for a more merciful trap ; nor yet where pictures of the present too familiar instrument may be seen. We need some practical advice as to how the numbers of rabbits can be kept down, while dispensing with the use of the "gin" or minimising its cruelty, in old and populous warrens, where ferrets are of little use, and the gun is insufficient. For my own part, I think it would be better to exterminate the whole breed of the poor little animals, rather than expose them to the lingering horrors• of the " gin ; " but as this is not a remedy likely to be adopted,. I write to say that my brother, who has for many years now anxiously sought how to solve the problem as regards his own warrens, finds it the best plan he can hit upon to engage regular rabbit-catchers occasionally to spend a night in some definite small portion of a warren. They then hear the cry of each poor rabbit caught in their gins, and, for their own sakes, to quicken their work, hasten to rescue and kill it, and reset the trap.. The dreadful misery of a rabbit lingering alive in the gin is thus guarded against. The gamekeepers, who might have the gins set for many hours without visiting them, are forbidden to use them altogether. This is not a complete solution of the difficulty, but it is the most practicable one of which, after many years' inquiry, I have heard. Springs do not catch enough rabbits to keep pace with the population of a warren, and often occasion as much suffering as the gin.—I am, Sir, &c.,.
PHILOZOOIST.
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