THE INVINCIBLE RABBIT
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—A paragraph under the above heading in last week's Spectator contains the remark that " If the exterminators are serious in their policy, they should take some little island where rabbits swarm . . . and try to clear it." Would it not have been fairer to make some enquiry before suggesting that the exterminators have not been sufficiently serious in their policy to do this ? Actually they have done it, for instance, in the case of the island of Inchfad in Loch Lomond, which was completely and successfully rid of rabbits by means of cyanide fumigation.
It can be asserted with some confidence that when cyanide fumigation is alleged to have failed, the cause will be found to be either reinfestation from surrounding land (against which no method can be proof), or unskilful or half-hearted work, or confusion of thought which mistakes cyanide fumigation for sulphur-dioxide fumigation, which we do not recommend. But the rabbit menace will continue so long as the trapping of rabbits for profit continues to be regarded as a legitimate industry.—Yours faithfully, C. W. HuME,
Hon. Secretary.
Unsverszty of London Animal Welfare Society, 42 Torrington Square, London, W.C. 2.
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