Releasing mixy rabbits

declan1980

I was telling an uncle of mine that his neighbour had asked me to shoot rabbits for him, and he told me that he was plauged with them too. I said that I'd shoot them for him if he wanted, but he said that he didn't like the idea of a lad shooting a rifle on his land, and that it was cruel anyway. He said he was going to try and get a mixy rabbit and let it off to get rid of the rest.
This ****in pissed me off, and I told him that it was a much more cruel thing to do than shooting them, because the rabbits would take a long time to die from it, that they would go blind, and that their organs would failand that they would die painfully. I said that shooting was more humane, that they would die instantly from a head shot, but he said that rifles were dangerous. I told him that a rifle is only as dangerous as the man pulling the trigger, and that in the five years I've be using rifles, I've never had an accident, but he just wouldn't hear it.
Now I don't want to come across as being pissed off about not being let shoot there, I genuinely don't want to see any animal suffer like that.
Can any one tell me if there would be any legal consequences for doing what he's talking about. Maybe it might persuade him not too

deerhunter1

****ty one, stick with it but dont piss him off, have you insurance

johnfaul

Ive heard of this being done as well
Its a real shame there are some idiots around not willing to change their ways

yellowfish

This is the most stupid and selfish thing I have ever heard of, what the hell is wrong with some people. Shunn him.

graham h

have u any mates whit ferrets and nets or hawks that cud do the job

EWQuinn

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myxomatosis

Whoa, this idea has "unintended consequences" written all over it! It only takes them 14 days to die, thats really humane. Don't know much about where you are, except that most of the bunny friendly sites are filled with remedies on how to cure it including a vaccine. If its not flatly illegal, you might be able to bluff him that it is, it surely should be. If the animal lovers found out about this scheme they would be really upset. The rifle in the hands of a good Irish marksman is incredibly more humane. Good luck with that one.

[Where I am we have huge owls and wiley bobcats that keep the bunnies and brother squirrel from overunning us. There is a web site where you can watch an owl eat a dead rabbit whole, I will spare you that.]

snipe02

have come across this myself f*#king horrible thing to do would it fall under poisening surely it can't be legal

Birdnuts

snipe02 wrote: »

have come across this myself f*#king horrible thing to do would it fall under poisening surely it can't be legal

Poisoning of rabbits with any type of bait is indeed now illegal. I'm not sure though how the law treats the introduction of a virus like mixy - possibly an issue that might come under the gambit of the Dept of Agriculture Vetinary section.

kildare.17hmr

Met a local farmer when out last week with the oul lad and he said he had just relesed 2 mixi rabbits in the next field, after a bit more of a chat and a "shoot all the feckers lads" later we headed off and shot the 2 mixi rabbits and about 7 more that were fine. Same lad did this last year in other fields whih pissed me off after him askin me to come in and shoot rabbits, i found a couple of mixi hot spots and obliterated them and did not see another mixi rabbit till the ones last week

Sean Mullen

do you mind me asking how you tell the difference between the two please:o

Birdnuts

Sean Mullen wrote: »

do you mind me asking how you tell the difference between the two please:o

A simple lab test can be done by any vetinarian to see if a rabbit is suffering from mixy or something more sinister. In any case, you can be 99% certain that if the eyes have that tell-tale runnyness/discharge with scabby bits, that you are dealing with Mixy

homerhop

reckon ya will see a good bit of it about shortly after the spell of rain, they are underground a lot in wet weather and it will spread like wildfire.

homerhop

you will tell the ones that had it too Kev and got over it, as they will have a bald patch around their eyes.

kildare.17hmr

homerhop wrote: »

you will tell the ones that had it too Kev and got over it, as they will have a bald patch around their eyes.

Yeah any that show signs like that are for the dogs dinner! Didnt know that was a sign of them after getting over it tho.

quite a few good size young grazers around my place already, a few in the freezer and a few already been bbq'd!

You can often tell a mixi rabbit when they wont run away or seem to not notice you nearly on top of them

graham h

homerhop wrote: »

you will tell the ones that had it too Kev and got over it, as they will have a bald patch around their eyes.

if the rabbit had mixi and got over it can it get it back again? i have being told that it cant is this true?

pugw

How would you even go about getting a mixie rabbit??? Its an awful practice, there's a heap of lads more than willing to sort them out with ferrets/rifles so theres no need for it!

Birdnuts

graham h wrote: »

if the rabbit had mixi and got over it can it get it back again? i have being told that it cant is this true?

It should be resistant to that particular strain of mixy - but new ones arise from time to time and that individual would be susceptible in that case.

rabbit assassin

There has to be something illegal about capturing a wild animal with a contagious disease and releasing it to purposely infect others and spread the virus.

And Declan as for the land owner he just sounds like a selfish uneducated fool. Let him live with the fact that he unnecessarily caused many rabbits a cruel and incredibly painful death if thats what he wants. If he introduces myxi into the area I'm sure your shooting buddys wont be too fond of him and nor will anyone else when they find out he would rather a long drawn out death than a quick painless one which us responsible shooters can provide for such a problem, not to mention the good that will come from the meat of the rabbits. There are so many lads out there willing to travel for no charge to help cut down rabbit population and you have idiots like this that rather go out of their way to be spiteful.

Birdnuts

rabbit assassin wrote: »

There has to be something illegal about capturing a wild animal with a contagious disease and releasing it to purposely infect others and spread the virus.

.

Definatly something that needs to be clarified with the relevant Dept - I'm sure if someone attempted something similiar with livestock or a protected species the powers that be would comes down on them like a tonne of bricks. Think about what happened to your man who "accidently" caused the Foot and Mouth outbreak in cattle/sheep back in 2001!!

Sean Mullen

what would happen if you were to skin and cook a rabbit with it or would it be obvious after skinning it that it had it?
just asking cause im waiting on my license to come through and intend on eating/freezing what i get.

kildare.17hmr

Mixi wont do ya any harm but i still just give them to the dog, he is still runnin around!

xoxyx

Under the Disease of Animals Act, 1966, a person is guilty of an offence where they are aware of a spread of myxomatosis and do not inform the relevant authorities. So, aside from being an utterly sickening and inhumane thing to do, releasing a mixy rabbit is also illegal.

Fair play to you Declan for trying to do something about this. If you can tell this guy that, not only is it illegal, but, also, a spread of mixy is going to be fairly obvious and it's very likely the authorities will become involved and they will be very interested in how it started in the first place, it might be enough to dissuade him.

Can't believe anyone would resort to this knowing full well how horrendous it is!!! :mad:

declan1980

Thanks for all the feedback lads, it's a horrible subject, but one worth talking about at the same time.
I am insured, so he has nothing to worry about in that respect, but even saying that, I am a very cautious person when it comes to shooting and won't take any shot that I consider to be risky.
Thanks for the bit of legal info, he might change his mind when I tell him that

kowloon

Saw a poor fecker wandering around a while back, if I'd been at home I would have finished him off rather than leave him suffer.

snipe02

im prob wrong but i think it can show in the animals liver anyway a healthy looking liver is a good indication that the animal was healthy

xoxyx

declan1980 wrote: »

Thanks for the bit of legal info, he might change his mind when I tell him that

Hopefully. Under the Act, he can be arrested without warrant and, upon conviction, can be both sent to jail and fined. It's a serious matter.

Good luck!

pheasntstalker

what an idiot that farmer is,that is a horrible an inhumane way of controling rabbit population ,shooting them is the rite way,:mad::mad: some people have no cop on

djflawless

was there not something here before about the catching in 1 spot and releasing in another being illegal without a permit from the big man??

Feisar

rabbit assassin wrote: »

There has to be something illegal about capturing a wild animal with a contagious disease and releasing it to purposely infect others and spread the virus.

Is it not illegal to capture wild animals and release them in a different area, regardless of whether or not they are carrying a disease or not?

Seem to remember reading something along these lines somewhere.

homerhop

Feisar wrote: »

Is it not illegal to capture wild animals and release them in a different area, regardless of whether or not they are carrying a disease or not?

Seem to remember reading something along these lines somewhere.

No it's not as long as the traps you use meet the legal requirements and they are not a protected species

cyberblade 918c

thought that moving wild animals to another location was illegal in itself unless under licence ??

deerhunter1

cyberblade 918c wrote: »

thought that moving wild animals to another location was illegal in itself unless under licence ??

Correct