Not Happy Easter Bunny in New Zealand

While some families were enjoying a nice meal together, or perhaps a peaceful church service, hunters in New Zealand killed over 23,000 bunnies over Easter weekend, NewsCore reports.

The 2011 Great Easter Bunny Hunt on New Zealand's South Island is billed as a charity event that rids farmland of an invasive pest, but some animal welfare groups see the event in an entirely different light.

From the Sunday Star Times:

Safe director Hans Kriek said he was against the hunt. "It's seen as a party atmosphere, sending people out as inexperienced hunters blasting away at animals. The ones they kill are one thing, the ones they injure are another."

He also doubted the effectiveness of a 24-hour hunt, which did more to incite cruelty than control the pest.

"You can commit any atrocity you like to animals in the name of hunting, and you fall outside the legislation, which is crazy, because wild animals feel pain just as much as domestic ones," he said.

According to the Otago Daily Times, thousands of people gathered in Alexandra's Pioneer Park to see the thousands of rabbits killed by 47 teams of hunters over the course of 24 hours.

Event convener David Ramsay told the Daily Times, "We think we're doing something to tackle the rabbit problem and I think the majority of views, especially those of farmers, are in our favour."

It's probably an over reaction from bunny and tree huggers. Ethical hunting and culling is part of conservation...the bigger evil is preservation of unwanted species.. Sadly no one enjoys slaughter of animals but it sometimes necessary for nature to have a balance. Alien animals wreck havoc on indigenous enviroments.

Table mountain enviroment in Cape Town was nearly destroyed by Tahrs (Himalayian mountain goats that escaped from zoo many years and bred prolifically) until it was decided to shoot them off...now the mountain enviroment has recovered and rare indigenous plants and animals have been saved.

In Noordhoek/Kommetjie area on the Cape Peninsula, Peacocks have become wild and unchecked...apparently they have destroyed the natural enviroment...they eat the eggs of natural game birds like francolin and guinea fowl...they might appear beautiful but are a curse...they belong naturally in China and have spread all over the world. I live in KZN near a nature reserve and some of the nearby estates have them and they are getting out of hand...they breed easily and infect our bird life and small creatures...not only that they have an awful ugly call that's a cacophony in the breeding season...they drown out all the beautiful songs of desirable natural birds in Spring. They should be eliminated and banned from natural areas. Bunny and tree huggers are ironically a curse to nature...their intentions might be good but it's ignorance and comes from city dwellers who never grew up on farms or exposed to nature. It's a huge misconstrued principle.

 Talking about Peacocks on a lighter note, you have an alien cock specie, in Australia originally from Zimbabwe called the Pocock who is responsible (together with a certain undesirable ref specie from NZ,who fortunately now has been culled) and wrecked havoc during one of rugby's most important events in 2011...the good and desirable specie the Springbok suffered...lolz 

PS there are other cocks in foreign lands that cause havoc on SA rugby forums too....hahaha.

Bec's I'm absolutely against any cruelty to any animals...indiscriminate and unwanted killing as well. I used to hunt and wing shoot but I don't any more but this was controlled with ethics. Canned hunting is the most barbaric and revolting of all.

But one must be get this into the right context and face reality and truth the tough way...it's useless to get emotional and associate it in the same catergory...it's on opposing sides. Ignorance and lack of education and understanding is the problem.

Invasion by undesirable alien plants and destructive alien creatures must be removed for conservation reasons because they will cause natural indigenous animals to suffer more and become threatened and that's the truth whether you like it or not...nature it's way of balancing and yes man's irresponsible population growth and subsequent property developement which I hate as well but unfortunately man will never see this is the reason why poor animals have very little space left.

But Bunny Huggers get emotional on issues and fail totally to objectively face reality.

The best solutions are not nice but necessary...the better option I agree is to snip all man's cajones...lolz.

Bec's I'm absolutely against any cruelty to any animals...indiscriminate and unwanted killing as well. I used to hunt and wing shoot but I don't any more but this was controlled with ethics. Canned hunting is the most barbaric and revolting of all.

But one must be get this into the right context and face reality and truth the tough way...it's useless to get emotional and associate it in the same catergory...it's on opposing sides. Ignorance and lack of education and understanding is the problem.

Invasion by undesirable alien plants and destructive alien creatures must be removed for conservation reasons because they will cause natural indigenous animals to suffer more and become threatened and that's the truth whether you like it or not...nature it's way of balancing and yes man's irresponsible population growth and subsequent property developement which I hate as well but unfortunately man will never see this is the reason why poor animals have very little space left.

But Bunny Huggers get emotional on issues and fail totally to objectively face reality.

The best solutions are not nice but necessary...the better option I agree is to snip all man's cajones...lolz.

Nothing wrong with a cull. but a hunt with spectators strikes me as a different thing. I went on a bird hunt with some friends once, and left in disgust on the first morning. It was a mindless slaughter that required no skill.....shotguns really aren't difficult to use and the pheasants were sitting on the fences as we drove into the farm.

Remember the passenger pigeon, once the most numerous bird on the planet, hunted to extinction in the 19th century because it was a social bird and migrated in huge flocks. We really can be a base species and given half a reason, will do the most cruel things.

Nothing wrong with a cull. but a hunt with spectators strikes me as a different thing. I went on a bird hunt with some friends once, and left in disgust on the first morning. It was a mindless slaughter that required no skill.....shotguns really aren't difficult to use and the pheasants were sitting on the fences as we drove into the farm.

Remember the passenger pigeon, once the most numerous bird on the planet, hunted to extinction in the 19th century because it was a social bird and migrated in huge flocks. We really can be a base species and given half a reason, will do the most cruel things.

Nothing wrong with a cull. B ut a hunt with spectators strikes me as a different thing. I went on a bird hunt with some friends once, and left in disgust on the first morning. It was a mindless slaughter that required no skill.....shotguns really aren't difficult to use and the pheasants were sitting on the fences as we drove into the farm.

Remember the passenger pigeon, once the most numerous bird on the planet, hunted to extinction in the 19th century because it was a social bird and migrated in huge flocks. We really can be a base species and given half a reason, will do the most cruel things.