WITH reference to the letter ‘We used to love all the dassies’ in last week’s RECORD, the following:
The reader complains about the dassies which multiply out of control and come into people’s homes. That they make a mess and cannot be tolerated is a reality. Adorable as they are, we cannot have them in our ceilings.
You know, they were there first, before the bulldozers and builders moved in. The habitat used to be in balance. It is mostly snakes, and specifically pythons, that control their numbers. It is unthinkable that pythons would be tolerated around homes where pets and children are. The truth is that if we leave them to do their thing, they will not bother us.
I recall that a farmer, some years ago, was urgently looking for pythons to release on his farm, to control the out of control dassie population.
It is in the human nature, unfortunately, to kill snakes. They are however very valuable everywhere in nature.
If we disturb the balance, we create problems.
So, how about bringing in a few pythons?
At least people wouldn’t have to thin out the dassies. I don’t think there will be an outcry by animal lovers if animal eats animal. It is natural.
Nature lover, New Redruth
