Have all pros and cons of virus been considered?

IT concerns me that the recent release of the Korean rabbit virus might not have been thought through by all the relevant parties.

Yes there was a plague of rabbits and yes this virus has decimated their numbers, at least where I reside. However, some basic facts remain.

When you have record numbers of prey, you have record numbers of predators born and out there in the wild, hunting and surviving. Over many years living in the country I have witnessed how catastrophic this flowon effect is.

When the calicivirus was occasionally stirred back into action, usually by huge rabbit numbers combined with mild and damp weather, the rabbit numbers would fall quickly and my chickens would take a hammering.

I dared not think what was happening to all the native wildlife. But stoats, ferrets and wild cats need to eat and eat they do.

A walk I take every day for over 10 years has revealed to me a brazen stoat, a skink half swallowed, in the middle of the day and in a place I have never witnessed such a thing before. However, there is not a rabbit to be seen, which is something that would have been seen regularly before.

My question is this. When the Otago Regional Council signed off the release of this new virus, did they have any contact with Landcare and/ or Doc about having a parallel control programme for the predators?

There is no easier time to snare a predator than when it is hungry. If not, why not? And pity the poor wildlife until such time, as a lot of predators die out in winter. Pete Jenkins

Galloway