This comes in the wake of media reports that a rural Waikato primary school has been forced to cancel a possum hunt after an international online petition sparked a fierce backlash. Orin Combined School, located between the Munawara River and Te Hoe Mountain north of Hamilton, planned to hold The Great Orini Possum Hunt to raise money for a class camp in Coromandel. This upset animal rights activists so much that they took to posting abusive messages on the school’s Facebook and email account, saying children should not be taught that killing “sentient beings” was “a fun and rewarding activity”.
