We suspect that many people, more especially city dwellers, laughed long and hard when they read in our Sunday edition about a young man who chose to turn a baby mongoose into a cuddly pet.

We can be certain that most deep rural Jamaicans were not laughing. They were mostly disgusted and horrified.

As our story, written by Executive Editor Mr Vernon Davidson pointed out, the mongoose is an extremely dangerous invasive species that has wrought havoc economically and environmentally.

The idea behind importing the animal from distant places in the 1800s was to control rats, as well as the feared — though mostly harmless — Jamaican snake, and various pesky life forms to be found on local sugar cane plantations.

It soon dawned on everyone that a terrible mistake had been made. Within a few years, the wily, highly adaptable, fast-breeding mongoose — with no natural predator — had occupied the entire island.

Small farmers and other homeowners who raised free-range chickens — often referred to as common fowl — felt the harsh economic pinch as mongoose took a liking to newly hatched, and growing birds.

Some older Jamaicans may very well remember decades ago when hardy farmers trained their dogs to hunt and kill mongoose as a way of controlling population growth. That’s a practice we suspect has faded away.

The damage done by mongoose to indigenous wildlife is catastrophic.

We doubt that even the most dedicated naturalists can even come close to accurately calculating its extent.

Scientists say at least two bird species which lay their eggs in grass have apparently disappeared largely because of the mongoose.

The Jamaican iguana, widespread centuries ago, and long thought to be extinct, was saved by scientists who — acting on information from wild hog hunters — found a dwindling colony in the Hellshire Hills of southern St Catherine in the 1990s.

Scientists have worked to keep the iguana afloat in the wild by routinely trapping and killing mongoose.

Aforementioned Jamaican snake species have largely disappeared. Again, the rampaging mongoose is much at fault.

The Jamaican coney, a small rat-like, rabbit-sized mammal, which historians suggest was plentiful in Jamaica’s wild centuries ago, is close to extinction. Again, the mongoose gets blamed most.

The Jamaican giant galliwasp, a lizard species, may have been exterminated by mongoose, naturalists say.

And anecdotal evidence suggests that other lizard species — not least those which live underground — are under threat from the aggressively voracious animal.

Economic and ecological threats apart, scientists were at pains to say in our story on Sunday that the mongoose pose a threat to human health and safety. They are potential carriers of the deadly leptospirosis and even rabies (not currently in Jamaica); and may even bite humans.

It’s clear that rather than nurturing the mongoose, Jamaicans should be finding ways to significantly reduce its numbers.

Even if we can’t completely eliminate harmful invasive species, control should always be uppermost in our minds for the greater good of all.

Naturalist Mr Damion Whyte says public education is needed.

We endorse that thought. At school, public places, in all media — formal and informal — people should be told that fostering harmful, invasive species such as the mongoose is beyond silly. It is in fact anti-social, and extremely dangerous.