5:02pm UK, Wednesday January 13, 2010
Josh Halliday, Sky News Online
Forty-two tons of poison could be dropped on a Pacific island in an ambitious attempt to get rid of rats.
Authorities on the picturesque Lord Howe Island, 500 miles off the coast of Sydney, Australia, are proposing the rodent blitz.
The move would see an area of 22 square miles peppered with poison-laced bait.
Stephen Willis, chief executive of the World Heritage-listed island board, said the plan was radical but there was no other option if the nuisance population were to be dealt with once and for all.
"This is one of the most beautiful places in the world," he said.
"Which is why it warrants such a significant and detailed programme."
The island's bird population would be caught and kept in cages for 100 days during the extermination, which is pending approval.
Dog owners would be offered muzzles for their pets, parents would be advised to keep a close eye on their children and farmyard animals would be shipped to the mainland if the poison is to be dropped.
It is thought the black rats were inadvertently introduced to the island in 1918.
Since then they have multiplied in number and been implicated in the extinction of at least five bird species.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Strange-News/Rats-Nuisance-Rodents-Face-Poison-Drop-On-Lord-Howe-Island-In-Pacific-Ocean-Off-Coast-Of-Australia/Article/201001215521433?f=rss
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