From Radio NZ
West Coast regional councillor Andy Campbell says there should be more harvesting of wild animals for food rather than being left to rot on the forest floor.
The West Coast Regional Council was reviewing its Regional Pest Management Plan and was considering adding some wild animals as pests for eradication, including feral goats, pigs and deer. There were no pest animals listed in the previous 2018 plan.
Split Opinion
Environmental group manager Shanti Morgan said preliminary consultation on the draft plan, set to take effect before the current one expires in 2028, showed the public was split on whether to include wild animals in the next plan.
Notably, the draft had not included wild animals so far, which
Morgan described as “bizarre” in a presentation to the West Coast Conservation Board.
The regional council had been considering including feral deer and would also seek government funding to implement any control measures for them, she said.
Feral deer numbers have been on the rise on the West Coast, with police regularly reporting collisions with motorists on both local roads and State Highways.
Resource
However, Campbell told Local Democracy Reporting the pest animals were a resource that should be harvested instead of having ratepayers fund their control.
“If you look back a bit in history in the 60s and 70s, they were hunted by the helicopters and there wasn’t a deer problem.”
Wild goats were another pest animal, plentiful on the West Coast.
“There are enough people in New Zealand to eat them. We have got to import goat meat to New Zealand. Why don’t we just have what we’ve got? That is probably the most organic meat in the world.
“So, why burden ratepayers and taxpayers with the cost?”
If you turn them into a pest, people will just shoot them and leave them laying on the ground, he said.
When asked whether the council would consider harvesting the pest animals instead of declaring them pests in the plan, Morgan said recreational harvesting fell outside the scope of the Regional Pest Management Plan and was managed by the Department of Conservation.
“The management of recreational harvesting is outside the scope of the RPMP. Harvesting of wild animals is managed by the Department of Conservation under the Wild Animal Control Act 1977.
Harvestable Resource
“The purpose of an RPMP is to manage pest species where they are causing adverse effects and where management is justified under the Biosecurity Act 1993, rather than to regulate recreational harvesting.”
Morgan said the council had received 108 submissions on the draft plan and feedback included concerns around the implementation, costs, and landowner responsibilities.
“At this stage, it would be premature to comment on the detail before that analysis has been completed and considered by council,” she said.
The council had not yet formed a position on any of the concerns raised by the public on the plan.
“Councillors will consider the feedback, including any concerns regarding costs and recreational hunting, as part of the upcoming workshop and subsequent public report before determining the preferred direction for the draft RPMP.”
The Ministry of Primary Industries said wild food, such as deer and goats, could be gathered for a person and their immediate family’s consumption.
“If you eat recreationally caught wild food you do so at your own risk,” the MPI website said.
Meat from wild animals could be sold if the hunter and meat processor are both certified and follow MPI’s guidelines.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ on Air
What a breath of fresh air by West Coaster Andy Campbell. However I fear the “pest” dogma is deeply entrenched in NZ society and bureaucrats feast on it to keep empires and salaries going.
Of course wild animals are a resource. Take the much maligned possum as an example. The fur is worth 25 or more times than crossbred wool, the meat has been successfully used for pet food and exported, until countries found NZ had a scatter 1080 regime and immediately cancelled orders.
Possum meat, I have been reliably told, is very tasty and ideal in casseroles. In these days of families struggling against runaway cost of living prices, possum meat would be very welcome.
Of course using 1080 as DOC recklessly does, means meat in poisoned animals is toxic and therefore cannot be used.
It’s just not fur and meat as Karl Lorenz rightly points out. Treating wild animals as a resource instills great values into youngsters. It is so, so much better than the pest syndrome where kids are taught disrespect and hatred and violence, e.g. school “pest” competitions.
Hunting teaches kids core life values like patience, responsibility, observation, respect for nature and so important today, gets children away from screens and into the outdoors with mental and physical benefits.
It shows them where their food comes from. It teaches skills and builds important self esteem and confidence, which youngster are lacking today.
The outdoors is the best classroom, hunting included.
I’d add another benefit to youngsters going hunting. It develops a work ethic.
This goes hand in hand with discipline. Getting up early and going the extra mile will build a strong work ethic. Slogging up a hill to look for a deer requires tenacity and a “stickability” attitude.
Some of the hardest working people I know are responsible hunters.
Every type of hunting takes arduous work and will build a strong Work Ethic!
Sterling work by ACT MPs Nicole and Cameron.
I fully agree with the above comments but will go a bit further and say that camps for young people who have gone off the rails should be created with men who can teach them bush living. Having to go without a shower or a phone would be too much for some. The cruel way in which the 1080 kills these animals is inhumane and should be stopped immediately. The high cost of spreading 1080 would go a long way in helping our young ones. But we all know that this will never happen, as there are vested interests in 1080 who have never been in the bush, just follow the money.
There were deer- culler camps like Dip Flat, Blue Glen that taught the fundamentals, like hygiene, rifle safety, and how to skin deer and opossum. This way, different species will be protected, like the South Island Kokako, Kea, and many other birds.
If we keep spreading 1080, we will end up with nothing left and with no benefit to the bush . It is time we woke up and harvested the bush as it should be done, and to get away from those who don’t know what they are doing by spreading poison
Keep up the good work ACT MP’s and I concur with the above sentiments of teaching our children to respect wild animals and see them as a resource, rather than to teach “hate and destroy” messages, and encouraging our children to get up early and climb hills, and teach them the cruelty and the native bird by-kill of 1080 operations.
They are a resource but it’s not safe to eat wild food in NZ at the moment because of the high levels of 1080 being aerially spread and anticoagulant rodenticides like brodifacoum being laid in bait stations. I’m surprised overseas countries aren’t more suspicious of our meat and dairy exports.
New Zealand needs a bucket load more of Andy Campbells, and someone with enough brains and balls in government to stop the cruelest method of pest management anywhere in the modern world, 1080 is evil, used on a wasted resource, pigs, goat’s, deer, rabbits etc are valuable assets that should be taken advantage of
Rules and regulations regarding the selling of feral animal meat for pet food or human consumption are so strict make it near impossible to sell them for the average hunters.Years ago there was a chiller in most country towns where game meat could be sold for cash the feral animals were well under control then.
The huge areas that are poisoned with 1080 have considerable buffer zones where game animals cannot be eaten and I think deer in particular are becoming bait shy.
I see at the end the Ministry of Primary Industries says “wild food, such as deer and goats, could be gathered for a person and their immediate family’s consumption.
If you eat recreationally caught wild food you do so at your own risk,” the MPI website said.
How pathetic by MPI bureaucrats.
Government attitude needs to get rid of the paranoid pest hatred and treat wild animals as a resource.
Does government not understand that 1080 drops cause wild disruption in the prey-predator relationships, inducing rat population explosions a few short years after aerial 1080? Scientific studies by Ruscoe, Nugent, Sweetapple and others clearly show that.
In the process of aerial dropping 1080, insects and birds particularly predators (moreporks, falcons, wekas) and scavengers like kea and inquisitive species like bush robins are killed.
In the long run, the toll on insects means insectivorous birds (e.g. fantail, robins, tomtits etc) decline because of less insects for food.
The paranoia around predators is either a con job or just plain dumb and ignorant.
Of course wild animals are a resource if you are prepared to manage them as such. In NZ the government (via DoC) does not manage the resource. In fact, DoC uses a “tragedy of the commons” system for managing our game resources (i.e. it’s a free-for-all with no management).