THE POOR RABBIT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 227, 23 March 1912, Page 2

THE POOR RABBIT.

CRUEL TRAPPING METHODS. •J ,i ; / Auckland, March 20. Extraordinary revelations regarding the methods adopted by rabbit trappers were made in the Police Court to-day, when a, rabbiter"was charged, on the information, of the Society for the Prevention of I 'C#ueltv to Animals, with keeping live rsvbbits. with broken legs. Defendant admitted the offence.

Mr. Matthews said that there were features connected with the case that probably his Worship had never dreamt of. Defendant was a rabbiter at Karaka, which was almost uninhabited. He caught rabbits, among other ways, in rat traps, and in nine cases out of ten their legs were broken. The wounded animals w«re then placed in a cage until were enough of them to send to town;'-' •> '

Defendant stated that the custom was the usual"'onV in Australia, and no notice was taken of it. He had no desire, however, t<r disobey the New Zealand law.

' Worship stated that the act of cattehiiig rabbits; in ,su<& a manner was, of course, cruel and' must not beidono. It' h®4,-ho\vev«;. bee# dime Tnorfc or less thdugMtlfesly. " Fof that reason he would fionVict h'iitn and drdefr him to pay costs (32.).