Letters: Agonising death for mongoose

I feel very sad today. You see, I found a young mongoose writhing on our driveway, dying a slow, painful death. How long he had been lying and dying there, I do not know, but it was probably hours. I took it to the local vet for euthanasia.
This confirmed my suspicions that someone in our area (Willard Beach) has been putting down poison, probably Rattex, whether to kill rats, or deliberately to murder our beautiful mongoose family which has been residing in our area for a few years. My suspicions were first aroused earlier this year when we found little baby mongooses crawling out of the den the family have been using at the corner of our property.
Why were the babies abandoned? We could only start thinking the worst…. the family was unable to come home because they were dead.
A couple of months later three mongooses appeared. Maybe a new group? They have been around for a few weeks, and then I found the one dying on our driveway. Please! If anyone is putting down Rattex for whatever reason, don’t you realise that just by leaving the mongooses alone, rats and snakes will naturally be kept at low levels?
You are destroying the delicate and important ecosystem which, besides being healthier and safer, also brings us pleasure when we can enjoy some wildlife. Poisons should be strictly controlled. Why can we buy Rattex at the supermarket, but not methylated spirits?
Let’s take care of our environment, wildlife, (big and small), and, while I am on the subject, recycle our plastics, bottles and paper. For our own sake!
BRENDA BERTHELSON
Ballito