Chapter 19 – Mouse plague or blessing? Acting on current events

Tuesday, September 22 | 50 days until the conference | 284 registrations

The mouse plague in Japan had flared up again, the news reported. An excellent opportunity for NatSoRoPro to link in with current events, Catja pointed out. She called on Casper and Victor to help her do so.

           They thought their message through, before posting it:

Pest control should be more animal-friendly, what do you think? #Rodentia15

           It triggered a lot of responses, including one from a Frisian dairy farmer. He contributed that, at NatSoRoPro, they ought to pay a little more attention to the position of farmers in the province of Friesland, where mice had all but destroyed their fields in the previous spring.

           The farmer pulled the discussion more broadly into social media, by adding the hashtag #mouseplague, which caused several different parties to join the discussion. The farmers were angry because the government’s response wasn’t decisive enough, and they appeared to see an opportunity in NatSoRoPro to bring the topic to the public’s attention once more.

           With Casper’s help, Victor participated in the dialogue, mentioning there would be a session dedicated to new forms of pest control at the conference. The farmer applauded it. He had applied different methods of extermination himself, but found he couldn’t bear to see the suffering he was causing to the mice. At the same time he was very clear and to the point about the amount of damage it was causing the farmers. Victor called Jaques to confer: would it not be an idea to highlight this perspective at the conference, too? It made the drama particularly palpable and brought it closer to home. They agreed they would like to add the man to the confrontation panel, and the farmer gladly accepted the invitation. He tweeted about it immediately. 

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Written by Gerrit Heijkoop & Paula Vos

 Narrated by Kevin Stillwell