Neighbours Slam School Rabbit Rout Bunny Fight Over Baiting
Newcastle Herald
Monday December 17, 2007
WHITEBRIDGE residents are hopping mad over a rabbit-baiting program that the suburb's high school is using to stop the feral pests from destroying its grounds.
Whitebridge High School principal Ian Wilson defended the school's baiting program in the face of some residents' concerns about the poison's impact on the environment.Increasing numbers of rabbits have been wreaking havoc at the school in recent months leaving a trail of dangerous diggings across the sporting grounds."This is an occupational health and safety issue for us because we have a duty of care to our students and staff," Mr Wilson said."We have had students and teachers who have rolled their ankles in these diggings.""We are doing this [program] with professional advice, consultation with the Department of Rural Lands and we have given our residents appropriate warning." The baiting program, which involves leaving carrots mixed with Pindone poison in the school grounds, follows an unsuccessful attempt to deal with the problem with calicivirus.Baits will be laid while students are away from school.But Kurraka Street resident Sally Jukes disputed the number of rabbits in the area and said baiting was an inappropriate method of dealing with the problem."If there were thousands of rabbits then poison might be an appropriate method to deal with it, but I've only seen three rabbits in the area," she said.Other residents were concerned about the impact on animals that came into contact with poisoned rabbit carcasses.A Rural Lands Protection Board spokesman said the school's baiting program complied with all relevant guidelines. He said Pindone was rated as a low toxic poison and animals needed to eat it in large quantities before they died.
© 2007 Newcastle Herald