by Juliet Speedy (Newshub)
The Department of Conservation (DoC) has confirmed a number of kea were killed in a recent 1080 drop around Arthur’s Pass. The department says it’s awful, not good enough and it wants to do better.
Arthur’s Pass Village has an exclusion zone for 1080 drops. It’s an area the curious kea love to roam free.
But DoC has confirmed to Newshub, a controlled drop of the poison in the Arthur’s Pass district last month has killed some of the native birds.
It was a large aerial drop in mountainous ranges and outside of the village the dead birds were found and tested.
“Seven of the 95 odd radio-tagged kea that we’ve got in Arthur’s Pass have died and they’ve been killed by 1080,” Morton said.
That’s a little more than 7 percent of the birds it monitors, which means it’s likely that many more than that have died.
“No we can’t be sure, we only know about that we’re radio tagging,” Morton said.
It’s a dilemma for DoC because the 1080 they are using to control the predators that kill the kea, is also killing the kea.
No worries.
According to DOC “non”-science, dead birds “bounce back”.
1080 is one of the most noxious, toxic substances (poisons) ever created.
It was intended to and still does kill insects.
It is toxic to and can harm or kill any member iof any species that metabolizes Oxygen in order to live.
Using this “weapon of mass destruction” as we do in New Zealand is not allowed in any other country.
This “predator free” ambition we are paying billions of dollars to pursue is not and will not be successful. The people that initiated it admitted that it was not likely to work but we should do it anyway in spite of the dangers and waste of tax payers incomes.
We have been presented with a cunning and false dillemma that says we must either pollute our environment with dangerous toxic substances or allow some species of birds to become extinct.
The people that promoted this deception say their are no other choices.
There are always other and perhaps better, wiser and less destructive choices.
Killing native birds in order to protect them is not acceptable and must be stopped.
How come kea are on the endangered species list when 1080 poison has been used for 50 odd years supposedly enhancing endangered species populations? DoC poisoned 7 out of twelve radio tracked kea in an Okarito drop a few years ago how do figures like these add up? Haven’t heard anything from the kea conservation trust recently they were great supporters of 1080 poison.