From Roger Rive.
I HAVE to agree with the comments made by Richard Baudains about the threat to our poultry from fast-breeding ferrets (JEP 9 October) and would like to add my own.
Having also lost a number of my poultry to these predators, I also feel that the Environmental Department should have a duty to deal with the problem of dangerous animals such as polecats /ferrets roaming our countryside killing people’s livestock.
Apart from domestic livestock there is the question of our ground nesting birds, marsh harriers, puffins and other seabirds.
Puffins breed in disused rabbit warrens, and rabbits are the prime prey of these animals so what better place to hunt – pity the poor plump puffin sitting on her clutch.
These polecat/ferrets, through no fault of their own, roam the countryside searching for prey, having been released into the wild to fend for themselves. These creatures do a great deal of harm to the environment, eating most vertebrates including agile frogs, toads, slow worms, lizards, voles and shrews to mention a few.
Do our Environmental Department feel that protecting these indigenous animals and birds is not their responsibility?
Perhaps the department should make an order that keepers and breeders of these animals should be licensed and controlled before it is too late to save what is left of our own indigenous bird and animal populations.
