Sir, - Lavish advertisements for rat bait have been appearing in newspapers and magazines across the country. The promotional drive is aimed primarily at farmers, who are hard-pressed enough without having to fight this devious and deadly enemy.
Public concern about the rodent threat is well founded. Rats eat about 10 per cent of their body weight each day and destroy more than 10 times that amount. They cause food poisoning, jaundice, typhus and salmonella. Secondary infection from a rat's bite can be fatal.
Even so, I was annoyed by the message contained in one of these ads. It advised: "Forget about your cat. Give him a rest and try our unbeatable rodenticide." With rats popping up everywhere, we need more feline warriors to defend our homes and farms, not fewer. Cats, and to a lesser extent kittens, are holding the line against the furtive invaders.
It is worth recalling that the Black Death in Europe would not have spread so quickly had it not been for a massacre of cats by the peasantry. Superstition and ill-conceived religious notions sparked the killing, and the result was that rats were free to carry disease in all directions.
Foxes, like cats, are predators that help to keep down the rat population. Yet they are subjected to relentless persecution. They are shot, poisoned, trapped, or hunted with packs of hounds. This leads to a breakdown of the ecological balance in the countryside.
Are we serious about winning the war against rats? If so, we have a choice to make: We can either support our allies in this marathon struggle, namely the cats and foxes, or we can sit back and watch Mr Rat munching his way into our lives.
What we need is at least one cat in every home and a complete moratorium on the killing of foxes. - Yours, etc.,
John Fitzgerald, Lower Coyne Street, Callan, Co Kilkenny.