170 WILD ANIMALS WORTH STALKING 



would be idle to suppose it can be done without 

 causing pain no matter what means are employed. 

 After many years of Rabbit killing reliable keepers 

 tell me that they consider there is less suffering 

 caused through trapping than by some other 

 means, if properly carried out. It is to the interests 

 of any one engaged in trapping Rabbits to look 

 at his traps once or twice during the night and 

 remove any animals caught, so that they are not 

 left long to suifer. Sometimes it is true a Rabbit 

 will break away with a broken limb, but when this 

 happens it must not be imagined that the suffering 

 is so great as some people would lead us to believe. 

 Opportunities of proving this have been forth- 

 coming, when animals that had been previously 

 caught and left a leg behind, and sometimes two, 

 were again captured, perhaps before the old stumps 

 had had time to heal, but in nearly every instance 

 the condition was found to be of the best, clearly 

 showing that had there been great suffering this 

 would not have been so. 



Ferreting is another means of capture as much 

 employed as trapping, but it is curious that we 

 rarely, if ever, hear of cruelty through the use of 

 Ferrets. However, I am quite convinced that 

 much more suffering is incurred by the use of 

 Ferrets, for the latter, if turned into big burrows, 

 are, even if muzzled, capable of inflicting severe 

 punishment on Rabbits that refuse to bolt by 



