Being cruel to be kind: Rathlin Island finally a ferret-free zone

Introduced to the island to control the rat population there, the alien ferrets became more rat-like than the rats and took to killing seabirds

Like their wild ancestors, ferrets are slim serpentine creatures almost half a metre long with black brown, or multi- coloured, coats.

Next to a battle lost, nothing is so sad as a battle won — The Duke of Wellington

The rogue ferrets of Rathlin Island have finally met their Waterloo. It’s sad that they had to be killed but, sometimes, ‘we must be cruel to be kind’.