Is it illegal to poison a pet rabbit ?

As others have stated RSPCA…

The Control of Pesticides Regulations 1986 states that anyone using pesticides “has a legal duty to do so responsibly and to take all reasonable precautions to protect the health of human beings, creatures and plants, and safeguard the environment”.

Your neighbour has acted illegally. He has not taken all reasonable precautions to protect the health of human beings and non-target species.

I think you are local to me, Bewdley? I don’t mind popping round and having a chat withe the neighbour

Your neighbour is putting poison within reach of your children.

Mrs MTG’s daughter is 14 and about as sensible as 14 year olds get.
There’s two under 5 grandchildren who visit as well though.
There’s also another neighbour’s 9 year old daughter who sometimes lets herself in to fuss the rabbits.
To an adult, bright orange granules are obviously rat poison.
To a child, they are fizzy sherbet or those magic crystals that grow in water.
One other twist is that the local community officer we have been dealing with is a friend of the parents of the 9 year old.
I think there have been some unofficial character references passed on.

Mantastic, about two miles out of Bewdley.
I’m not sure if you’re a police officer and that’s a genuine offer, or a “Make him an offer he can’t refuse” type joke.
If you can do that officially, that would be great.
I don’t know how treading on the toes of our local community officer like that would go down.

If he’s had a warning, I suspect that will be enough for now. There was a consequence to his actions that he probably didn’t foresee. Keep the wife on side by letting it lie for a while, you don’t want to fall out with her over a neighbour 🙂

P.S Off to feed Samson…if he has time after chasing the magpies in the garden and trying to dig up the new turf, he’ll pop round and spray wee liberally up the guys legs. He’s an excellent shot, unfortunately…

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“So what do rabbits on here look like then” thread! 🙂

“So what do rabbits on here look like then” thread!

Well, it has less chance of going wrong than a similar but cat-themed thread

Fancy a bit of s**t-stirring? Your local newspaper will love this…picture of the kids and Mr Fluffy on the front page, etc….!!

Contact the RSPCA, press the police. If you don’t get the response you need from your community officer, ask for the name of their commanding officer and ask to speak to them.

If you still aren’t satisfied with the response, get the names and serial/shoulder numbers of the officers involved and contact the chief constable for your area.

As for being reported for trespass, that’s bollocks. Trespass is a civil offence, not criminal. The police won’t be interested unless they can show that criminal damage has been caused. Tripping over an aerial cable is an accident, not deliberate. If anything, you could claim damages of your neighbour for causing an accident.

So if I understand correctly he’s putting the poison on his side of the fence and making sure some spills through onto your side?…

What I would do would be build a temporary secondary fence/barricade ,it looks as though the fence sits on a Wall if there is a similar ledge on your side run a line of bricks along it thus blocking off his little poison glory hole and also keeping the rabbits and kids safe.
If he really wanted to get poison into your garden he would need to try a lot harder and as such would be less passable as an accident when/if the police are involved.

If he resorts to throwing it over then’s the time I’d go round and make him pick the shit up!

What I would do would be build a temporary secondary fence/barricade ,

Sod that, it just wants some flashing tape to seal to the gap up. Or expanding foam. Or just cement.

Is the fence yours or his or shared? If it’s not his then get some clear silicone sealant along the bottom edge where it meets the wall.

If he starts throwing it over the fence then the gloves come off and I would pay him a visit and shove it down his throat.

I’d write to your Police Chief Constable or whoever is top of the tree stating that you reported a neighbour leaving poisons unprotected near children to the Police who did nothing and ask him if he thinks this is acceptable, or do you have to wait till a child dies before they will consider it a serious matter.

If you still aren’t satisfied with the response, get the names and serial/shoulder numbers of the officers involved and contact the chief constable for your area.

do people really believe when the write to the Big Boss of anything it has any effect other than to get slowly passed down the chain of command until it lands with somebody who’s job it is to actually deal with it? If you are unhappy with police inaction, complain to the local inspector; they’ll be the person who would ultimately deal with any complaint resolution after its spent 2 weeks cascading down through peoples in-trays.

As for being reported for trespass, that’s bollocks. Trespass is a civil offence, not criminal. The police won’t be interested unless they can show that criminal damage has been caused. Tripping over an aerial cable is an accident, not deliberate…

….and criminal damage can be (subjectively) reckless, not merely intentional….

If anything, you could claim damages of your neighbour for causing an accident

your’e just making this up as you go along now, aren’t you?