Press release
Sporting Hunters Outdoor Trust
The Sporting Hunters Outdoor Trust has questioned the use of aerially spread 1080 poison by OSPRI for possum control on Molesworth Station and part of Muller Station in the Marlborough backcountry.
“The justification for the mass aerial poison drop is lacking,” said Trust spokesman Laurie Collins of the West Coast.
Laurie Collins has had a long association with 1080 poison beginning with work as a young forest trainee with the NZ Forest Service and was employed on New Zealand’s first trials of 1080 in the Lake Wakatipu region. Subsequently he worked in pest control with both the New Zealand Forest Service and for regional councils.
As a pest operator he hunted possums on Muller Station – contracted by the Marlborough District Council – and knows the area well.
“The nature of the country, open tussock mostly, withe occasional clump of beech trees in gullies, makes it ideal to hunt possums by night shooting and ground poison which I did using pindone. Numbers were reduced to very low levels,” he recalled.
An advertisement (May 31, 2023) warns the public of an imminent 1080 poison drop on publicly owned Molesworth Station and part of privately owned Muller Station.
“Dropping 1080 poison from the air is expensive and because of 1080’s nature, anything and everything that ingests it dies. Originally developed as an insecticide, it kills invertebrates vital to the natural ecosystem,” said Laurie Collins.
Deer Repellent Ineffective
Measures to minimise wild deer being poisoned by way of using deer repellent were questionable.
“It simply doesn’t work effectively,” he added.
Laurie Collins said the reason for the OSPRI poison drop which was sanctioned by the Department of Conservation, was to control possums which it was claimed by OSPRI carry bovine Tb. The incidence of Tb is assessed by testing stock. The Department of Conservation administers and manages the publicly owned Molesworth Station.
“My understanding is that OSPRI (TB Free NZ) doing the poisoning monitors stock herds with the skin test,” said Laurie Collins. “This is highly questionable as the skin test is about 25-30% error prone giving false readings both ways. So a TB infected animal passed falsely as “uninfected” remains in the herd, likely to infect other stock. There are far more accurate tests, such as the blood test.”
Is There a Tb Problem?
Laurie Collins said it was very questionable whether New Zealand had a bovine Tb problem.
“My understanding is the World Health Organisation’s standard for “Tb free” is 0.1% cattle infection rate, yet for many years New Zealand has been at 0.001% and even below. In 2016 the National coalition government’s Agriculture Minister Nathan Guy told Parliament, 9830 possums were autopsied for TB with all marsupials showing no sign of bovine Tb,” he said.
Laurie Collins – “Is there a Tb problem?”
I know the area well. Open country, tussock, bit of matagouri and the odd beech grove in gullies. Easy to ground hunt. Laurie Collins is right. No need for 1080.
Besides it’s not good possum habitat, too open for them. So numbers will be low.
Why then the 1080?
Answer – jobs, warm offices and salaries!
Keep the myth going and the jobs are secure. Don’t worry, the taxpayer will pay.
I remember Nathan Guy, Minister of Ag., saying about 9830 possums tested and not one had Tb!
OK,
I get all of this disgusting travesty of blanket spreading an indiscriminate universal poison that kills every creature that metabolizes oxygen. Making us again ,the laughing joke of world history.
But! we are duped into taking our eye off the engine driving this monster, it wont be new to anyone, It’s called,–MONEY!!
There is enormous amounts of cash being passed around to keep this engine spinning over at full revs. Careers, reputations, capital assets, mortgages plant & machinery are gobbling up cash & need replenishing. Livelihoods are at stake, justifications need a rubber stamp to release yet more cash.
I put it to the great 1080 researchers Pat & Quinn Whiting O’Keefs. “Since the moedis are about to take over most of NZ & for sure the conservation estate.Maybe they will object”spiritually having poison spread on “their “land”??
Quinn as a scientist rightfully didn’t like a religious answer to an ecological question,which is what all the moedi hokus pokus is all about.He said:
“& anyway, “do we really want to win that way??” [alluding to the extrapolation of mysticism sneaking in to other realms & being ratified as equal to science.
There has never been any justification for the use of this inhumane poison yet it continues to be used after 50 or 60 years with no positive effects.
1080 and other issues are mainly political.
Politics is all about who will have authority and power over the rest of the people.
Disagreement, complaining and trying to discuss an issue logically has little or no effect on political decisions.
The only effective way to oppose what we disagree with is political activism, involvement in party politics and thereby having influence with the people who make the political decisions and impose them on the rest of the people.
Only a very small minority of the people are active or influential within the succcessful politivcal parties but most of the rest do not understand this.
Another minority of people could join, become active, gain influence and change the party culture, ideologies, ambitions, agendas and decision, if they made the effort.
Members of the Outdoors Community who fish, hunt and gather for food or recreation have not been politically active and therefore are not represented or considered important when political decisions are made.
We pay the price for our own failure.
Yes Lew I hear you above here, but when money is the driving force, who needs justification?
For example, public funds are always needed for schools,hospitals roads, elderly care & a shopping list as long as your arm. Yet the budget’s true colors of racism throws $34 mil. at the Matatini Kapa Hate ya Festival.
What justification for that??
Not to mention the treasonous former PM plucked $55mil of public funds to control the media, by dictating a line of racist presentation. Justification???
About C M Baycroft’s comments, I strongly agree that the outdoors public “have not been politically active and therefore not represented or considered important.”
Instead fishing and hunting organisations naively see the way is to have “tea and scones” with bureaucrats. Bureaucrats are invariably insincere and delight in “tea and scones.”
Outdoors public need to beat the drum and do it publicly. Forest and Bird have shown the way to infiltrate and influence.
Must have seen some Kea up there DOC want rid of