Protect our wildlife (From Oxford Mail)

Protect our wildlife

9:37am Tuesday 2nd January 2007 in Letters

I wonder how the animal activists, who unleashed mink into the English countryside, feel knowing the devastating consequences their actions have had on our rich and diverse wildlife.

While I understand and sympathise with their motives and feel that fur is best left attached to the body on which it grows, I firmly believe that we must take a responsible stance with regard to mink. Where they threaten a sensitive environment, they should be controlled.

The wonderful success at recreating the Ewelme watercress beds, where Ratty can still be seen, is, I believe, down to a common sense approach towards mink. I once spoke to a lockkeeper who had had a nasty encounter with mink. They are ferocious predators with a unique efficiency in annihilating an area of nesting young birds and mammals.

His sad account of the effect mink had had on his stretch of the river made me see beyond their quaintness as a wild (though not indigenous) mammal and come to terms with the reality of controlling their numbers.

It is a noble and worthwhile gesture to vote to save the Bengal tiger and the Asian elephant, but we must also look to our own wildlife before it is too late.

SHIRLEY NELDER Dene Road Headington Oxford