Easter hunting fun to control pests
You can’t put lipstick on a pig, but sunglasses on a possum may just win you a prize.
A Manawatu hunter has come up with a rustic way to celebrate Easter and support his local school, with a rabbit hunt and best-dressed possum contest.
This Easter Richard Pedley roped in family, friends, and the school community from Bainesse, near Palmerston North, for the first Bainesse Bunny Buster hunt, to help raise money for a new school bus.
Starting on Thursday, 17 teams and two individual entrants had three nights to bag as many bunnies and hares as they could to get the top head count. Weighin was at the school on Sunday.
‘‘The school needs a new bus. We’re a farming community and I’m actively interested in hunting, I always like a competition, so I thought I’d combine the two and make it a family event,’’ Pedley said.
To include children, he ran a best dressed possum competition.
‘‘You can come by your possum anyhow, as long as it’s in recognisable condition. I guess roadkill counts, but it has to be recognisable.’’
Pedley said the event served double duty by helping keep pest numbers down on local farms, and the teams were encouraged to take along young helpers to learn during the competition.
The winning team, ironically named Miss a Lot, came back with more than 126 hares and 20 rabbits.
Team member Grant Gloyn joked they could ‘‘put a few more cows in the fields now’’.
Young hunter Sam McGuinn, 14, travelled from Taihape for the competition, and had a good haul. He liked the humour of hunting rabbits at Easter.
Pedley said the weather had kept most teams indoors on Thursday night, but one team who braved torrential rain had done well, shooting 19 hares.
All possums entered in the best-dressed contest had been humanely euthanised, and were safely dead before the young ones handled them, he said.
‘‘They’re scary things at the best of times, with long claws on them. You want them dead before you start dressing them.’’
‘‘It’s a fun thing, there has been some quite good ones. I don’t really want it to offend people. It’s to raise money for the school bus,’’ he said.
Parents were supportive. A few children had not wanted to touch their possums.