Everything began with a burrow.
In 2020, CADIC, a CONICET scientific center in Ushuaia, discovered that European rabbits were weakening the foundations of its building. The solution they proposed was radical: aluminum phosphide, a compound that releases phosphine gas and that the WHO classifies as extremely toxic. Animal-protection organizations took the case to court, and federal judge Federico Calvete halted the culling.
Now, years later, the case was closed with a phrase that resonates beyond Tierra del Fuego: rabbits are sentient beings and cannot be treated like a car or a piece of real estate. The detail is that this same species was introduced in 1936 with just two pairs and today numbers millions of specimens, which the Ministry of the Environment itself considers a threat to biodiversity and even to the safety of Ushuaia Airport.
What weighs more: the right not to suffer or the harm caused by a species outside its natural environment?