MORE POISON BOXES HAVE BEEN FOUND AT THE UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA. ALTHOUGH THE UNIVERSITY MAY CLAIM THESE BOXES ARE FOR ONLY KILLING RATS THE CHEMICAL THAT IS BEING USED IS HIGHLY TOXIC. HERE IS SOME INFORMATION ABOUT WHAT IS BEING USED:
Bromadiolone is an anticoagulant and may cause haemorrhaging if swallowed or
following skin contact. Keep out of the way of food and feeds, their packaging
and handling materials and keep out of reach of children and pets. Wear
impermeable gloves during handling. Avoid mouth and skin contact. Wash splashes
or spillage from skin or eyes immediately. Wash hands before smoking or eating
and after using the product. This product is toxic to wildlife and pets; ensure
that traps and baits are not accessible to non-target species Pre-mixed or
prepared baits may resemble food or feedstuffs. Care should be taken at all
times to ensure that such formulations cannot become mistaken for food or
feed.
There
are many types of rodent baits or traps on the market, most kill rodents with
anticoagulants. Anticoagulants cause internal bleeding, the rodents bleed to
death. If a dog or cat ingests the rodenticide then the poison will have the
same effect on its body, without treatment the dog or cat will bleed to
death.
- Act fast – Rodenticide poisoning is very serious. Without
treatment your pet will slowly bleed to death. The symptoms you'll see are
lethargy, weakness, cold limbs, and pale gums. You may also notice bloody urine,
blood in the stools, and nose bleeds. If you see your pet ingest rodent bait or
suspect that it has, do not wait for symptoms to show, it maybe to late if you
do.
- Types of rodent bait – The active ingredient in most rodent
baits are: brodificoum, diphacinone, warfarin, bromadiolone. These are the
anticoagulant. There are other types of rodent baits that do not include
anticoagulants but they are also poisonous to dogs and cats and should be
avoided.
AS YOU CAN SEE FROM THIS INFORMATION THIS POISON IS VERY DEADLY AND WILL CAUSE GREAT SUFFERING TO THE BABY RABBITS. PLEASE DO WHAT YOU CAN TO STOP THIS - WRITE THE UNIVERSITY, PRESS OR YOUR MP.
I have 2 pet bunnies and wouldn't DREAM of abandoning them to the wild, but I can see why some people may have thought UVIC was a good place to set theirs free. As a Public Institution, UVIC has a damn nerve setting out to cull these poor creatures. Who cares if a load of jocks trip on the Sports Fields - certainly not me! The rabbits are the very reason that I take my children for walks at UVIC. Our family, and many other families that I know, will be heading up to the administration offices with pickets - yes, that's right - my 10 & 13 year olds will be picketing the campus, and I DEFY the Campus security or police to move them on. Its public property! I hope other families will join us!
ReplyDeleteLetter to Times Colonist -
ReplyDeleteI’ve read many letters here about the UVic bunnies over many months. Victorians seem to believe that they live in a little bubble, completely separated from the rest of the world - that they alone can choose the fate of the UVic rabbits – after all – the rabbits are in Victoria, right? Dead wrong! There is a world out there people, and guess what – you’re part of it - and so, are the rabbits. The current rabbit population may be a problem, but poisoning them, shooting them, puncturing their hearts with a needle, then burying the babies alive in their burrows (having exterminated the mother), as we are told is currently happening at UVic, is NOT the solution. If you don’t believe me, then why not ask a few of my friends and family around the world. When I sent out an email to contacts in England talking about what was planned here, they were so shocked and horrified at the treatment the UVic rabbits are receiving that THEY actually joined the UVic Save the Bunnies group themselves, including recruiting other friends in the UK in their dozens – and the movement is growing. Within a few hours, letters were pouring into UVic from Universities around Britain lambasting them about their behaviour, and threatening the action of the UK Animal Rights Movement. And in case you weren’t aware – those people have REAL teeth, and - they use them. So Victoria’s dirty little secret has now become an international issue, with the ensuing bad publicity that UVic doesn’t need in attracting foreign students, and Victoria doesn’t need when attracting tourists. You can thank me later – I don’t care. You see, in England, they have wild rabbits roaming free in the New Forest, which is (despite the name) actually a residential area. Rabbits on the lawns of the Municipal Halls; rabbits on the sports fields; rabbits in people’s gardens. Gee, sound familiar Victoria? In the mid-1900’s the UK government decided to try to wipe them out. Not only did it not work, but the British people were so horrified at the cruel treatment that the rabbits received, that it is still a hot-button issue today! The rabbits are tolerated, and yes, it is because they are cute – but also because they are sentient creatures, just like you and me. Yes, the population needs to be controlled. No, culling isn’t the way to do it. The University’s tepid “trap, neuter, release” programme was a pathetic attempt at PR - just like the child who kicks his clothes under the bed when asked to clean his room! What the University needs is an organized and methodical group of volunteers willing to catch the rabbits, so that they can be neutered, and then hold the capturees until a critical mass of rabbits has been neutered, at least half, but better two-thirds of the population, before releasing them back into the grounds (or better yet, getting as many as they can adopted out). It can be done; it should be done. The University is taking the easy way out. For those of you that complain about the cost of the exercise to the tax-payer, I’ll ask you this – how much did UVic / Victoria pay last year to promote themselves as a destination and to attempt to raise their international standing – how many thousands of dollars did they shell out of our money trying to impress people around the world? I can tell you resoundingly that a few bucks spent on a bunny vasectomy would have been a much more successful spend of those tax-dollars!
Yours faithfully,
T. Smith-Daniels