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Acclimatisation Societies of New Zealand

10,000 Birds

A housecat in Buenos Aires got its start in Africa, a sheep in Australia to the Middle East, a chicken in Ireland can trace its origin to the jungles of Asia. Possums still strip our native forests, ferrets and stoats and possums still devastate our native birds. Rabbits are still an agricultural pest.

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When conservation and animal rights collide

10,000 Birds

I’ve written at length about the specific vulnerability of insular faunas and the catastrophic extinctions caused by the arrival of rats, mice, ferrets, cats and possums (amongst others), here in New Zealand fully half the pre-human bird species were lost. It is without question an unpleasant way to die for any animal.