Perth Voice Interactive

LETHAL rat bait left outside the Osborne library may have been used by children as pavement chalk.

Stirling council is investigating library user Carlo Meleca’s claim a baiting station he’d seen in the courtyard a week ago — filled with bright blue bait — was empty Monday afternoon, and the courtyard brick floor covered with bright blue drawings.

“I went over to have a look at it, because at first I thought it looked like pool cue chalk,” Mr Meleca told the Voice.

He says he’d seen the bait in nearby bushes and is worried inquisitive children might have dragged it out.

“There’s lots of kids who use the library, lots of African kids and kids from different countries where English is the second language, so they might not have known what they were playing with.”

Mr Meleca said after seeing the bait last week he’d warned staff it was too close to a ping pong table popular with children and teenagers, but was ignored.

Stirling media manager Simone Holmes-Cavanagh says the first the council was aware of the baits was the Voice’s call, and someone had been sent out to investigate.

by STEVE GRANT