Australia¢¥s rushing to legalize a dangerous poison in a bid to wipe out a plague of mice.

Millions of rodents have been destroying crops and stored grain across the country¢¥s south-east. It¢¥s a cruel blow to farmers in a region that¢¥s already ravaged by wildfires, floods, and drought. According to the Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall, Australia was at a critical point and if the country didn¢¥t significantly reduce the number of mice by spring, it would cause an absolute economic and social crisis in rural and regional New South Wales.

The state government¢¥s ordered 5,000 liters of the banned poison Bromadiolone from India; however, critics fear that it could kill not only mice but also the animals that prey on them in the wild.

Difficult words: plague (an unusually large number of animals or insects that cause a lot of damage), ravage (to cause severe and extensive damage to something), prey (to hunt and kill for food).