Minking It

‘IF you thought that the hedgehog cull in the Outer Hebrides at £1,800 an animal was expensive, it’s nothing compared with the massacre of the mink in the Western Isles.

”How about immunity if I tell you where the hedgehogs are hiding?”

In 18 months since the programme to eradicate mink from the Scottish islands began, £1.65m has been spent and only 232 animals caught (out of a population of 4,000).

That works out, by our calculations, at just under £7,200 a mink – or four hedgehogs, if you prefer.

The Independent says 12 professional hunters have been employed on the project. As well as the 232 mink, they have also caught 129 ferrets and 1,352 rats.

Conservationists defend themselves by claiming that the cull has already brought benefits, such as increasing stocks of salmon and trout.

But even with this taken into account, taxpayers are footing a bill of over £2,000 a mink.

In many parts of the country, you can get a human being culled for half that…

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Posted: 22nd, May 2003 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink