“Nelson Mail” (Stuff)
Hunters wanting to donate venison hunted on council land say they have been “given the runaround”, despite enthusiasm from Nelson’s mayor. David Haynes of the Nelson branch of the New Zealand Deerstalkers Association has already taken part in managed hunts for charity, donating venison to Kai Rescue along with other hunters in the Nelson area.
He said the event was so successful, the Nelson branch of the association decided to work with the Nelson City Council to organise another hunt in council water reserves, figuratively killing three deer with one bullet. The plan would contribute to council pest management, provide an opportunity for hunters, and provide food to those in need.
However, he attended a meeting of the council’s environment and climate committee on Thursday to say that rather than going off with a roar at council, the idea had lost steam after hitting “brick wall after brick wall”.
“We approached the mayor (Rachel Reese) with this idea, and she was wholeheartedly in support of it, and opened the necessary doors for us to go and see the relevant departments in council,” he said.
“Nine months on, we’ve got absolutely nowhere.”
He said that there was an apparent unwillingness to help from the council, with little or no feedback on documentation requested and supplied, a “litany of excuses”.
“Nobody is taking charge of it.”
As an example, he said a requested draft health and safety plan took about seven months to get a response, and the initial feedback was to say “it wasn’t good enough, but we can’t tell you why”, despite being an almost exact copy of the health and safety plan used by council-contracted cullers who regularly control pest and game animal numbers.
He said in another instance the association was told there was no more hunting because of a hunting review, “but we smelled a rat”.
An official request for more information showed the group were “given the runaround”, he said.
