Napier local Ray Liddall was shocked to see a dead possum hanging from a trap outside a local school on Wednesday morning.
She was dropping off her seven-year-old niece to a holiday programme around 8:30am at when she noticed the dead animal.
"It wasn't even far up the tree," Ms Liddall told Newshub. "It was just hanging there."
She said she had to cover the child's eyes so she wouldn't see the dead possum.
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Ms Liddall got on the phone to the Hawke's Bay Regional Council (HBRC) and left a message asking that the possum be removed promptly from the tree outside Nelson Park School.
She also filed a request with Napier City Council for the removal of the animal, but was apparently told that was under the jurisdiction of the HBRC.
A Napier District Council spokesperson said traps were the easiest form of pest control to monitor in urban environments.
He said the council were looking into a form of trap that sent a signal when triggered, but the 12 to 15 used currently in Napier were not this type.
At the end of the day, Ms Liddall's niece said she and her friends had been crying "because they thought they'd seen a dead cat".
She said the four girls had seen the animal still hanging from the tree as they went outside for morning tea, well after Ms Liddall had alerted the council.
She is now urging the council to have "a little bit more sensitivity around where the traps are set" in future.
"I just think they needed to move the bloody thing," she said.
Newshub.
