Retorts

Possum Traps

I was interested to read Colin Little's Viewpoint article on possums in your last issue. The Bay of Plenty Regional Council is in the process of making Timms traps available, particularly to the urban public, by way of hire centres. We propose to supply each hire centre with a number of these traps at a subsidised rate as part of our pest control efforts in the urban areas.

We disagree with Mr Little's view on the merits of the Kaki trap versus the Timms trap. None of these traps are perfect, but in our opinion the Timms is very good, and the best of the bunch. We believe it is very easy to set, whilst a convenient, safe way of unsetting it is merely to kick it. In our experience, however, it must be securely anchored and the brochure accompanying the trap does not emphasize this enough. We always emphasize this point to users.

Furthermore, a major advantage of the Timms trap is that it humanely delivers a dead animal, which the user can then bury. There have been problems in the past with people who have trapped a live possum, injured or uninjured, and who cannot bring themselves to kill it.

Greg Pemberton, Director of Operations & Rural Services, BoP Regional Council

Mr Pemberton sent us a news item concerning a Napier man who was stuck with 27 trapped possums. He couldn't bring himself to kill them, and tried releasing them in the countryside. The local farmer was not amused...