Is the rabbit valuable game or vermin ? Are those
who destroy it thieves and murderers or benefactors ? The most humane killers are the " long net " poachers, who work quickly and thoroughly. Next come the sportsmen who ferret and shoot, and worst are the rabbit farmers who trap with steel jaws. There is little doubt that the poachers diminish the head of rabbits and the farmers increase it. The theory suggested to me by Captain Hume, of the Animal Welfare Society of London University, is, I think, entirely sound. If you forbade tfie steel trap, which makes things easy and profitable for the professional, in proportion as it is cruel, you would see a steady decrease in the rabbits of the country. These men encourage rabbit production not less obviously than the landowner I have quoted. The tenant or owner who lets out the right to take rabbits must hold his own hand and the poacher is kept at bay. The trappers release a certain number of does ; and it is the common experience that when trapping for, profit is most systematically carried on, there the population of rabbits continues to be greatest. Bona fide farming of any sort and forestry are ruined by rabbits. They do more harm than rats. Did anyone ever stigmatize a killer of rats as a poacher, an enemy of the community ? The conclusion of the whole matter is plain : abolish the steel trap. Rabbits would decrease, not multiply.
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