Skeptics take on the anti-1080 nutters, and others

[scumdog]

NZ has no native mammals and it's mainly mammals affected by this poison.

NZ has native bats at least - and theyr'e in Southland.

[Ixion]

http://www.doc.govt.nz/conservation/...-control/1080/

..- aren't you supposed to keep your dog on a leash unless it's in your own garden?

Might make pig hunting a bit tricky?

[scumdog]

Might make pig hunting a bit tricky?

And duck or quail hunting.

[Blackbird]

NZ has native bats at least - and theyr'e in Southland.

And Tongariro National Park

[Ixion]

Even more so! Though I suppose the duck hunters could use a very LONG leash.

[ynot slow]

Even more so! Though I suppose the duck hunters could use a very LONG leash.

Well the pig hunting guys with dogs with locator beacons on collars still lose dogs,and never find them,so pretty hard to hunt pigs when dog is on a leash if this is the greeny way to hunt pigs,to ensure dogs don't die from 1080 poisoning.

[duckonin]

To Hitcher and Mcjim, I sit here shaking my head in dispair, it would seem you have been blinded by the same light as most of the NZ public,and that is the "bureaucracy bullshit machine"..You are both a classic example of how it all works, the system has done it's job well, you have believed just what they wanted you to, that is so you can carry on their marvelous work spreading the gospel of F Crap

First hand experience is never forgotton when working in areas contaminated with 1080..SHHHHHHH DID SOMEONE WHISPER?, that is only a part of it..

At a meeting many years back a MAF operater said a person could consume a teaspoon full of 1080 and it would have no effect..I invited him to do this, alas he declinded...

[Hitcher]

To Hitcher and Mcjim, I sit here shaking my head in dispair, it would seem you have been blinded by the same light as most of the NZ public,and that is the "bureaucracy bullshit machine"..You are both a classic example of how it all works, the system has done it's job well, you have believed just what they wanted you to, that is so you can carry on their marvelous work spreading the gospel of F

So you're happy for possums to spread bovine Tb and destroy New Zealand's biodiversity in the process? For what? So a bunch of gun-toters can wander around potting things when they feel the urge?

Of course 1080 kills things that it's not supposed to. I am certain that DoC and other agencies know this and certainly don't deny it. 1080 may lack precision but it works and there's no viable alternative. There's plenty of evidence to show huge increases in native bird populations after 1080 programmes.

[Skyryder]

The reality with possum control is that 1080 can be dropped into areas that are so difficult to penetrate that both trapping and shooting are impossible. No poison drop is perfect and some casualty will be of a consequnce. Left unchecked possums will destroy much more than 1080 ever will.

Skyryder

[scumdog]

The reality with possum control is that 1080 can be dropped into areas that are so difficult to penetrate that both trapping and shooting are impossible. No poison drop is perfect and some casualty will be of a consequnce. Left unchecked possums will destroy much more than 1080 ever will.

Skyryder

It's the dumb-arsed policy of 'let's poison around the bush edge 'cos that's where the possums come from onto farmland and spread TB' that gets me.

Do they REALLY think the possums from further back don't migrate into the area that's now devoid of possums due to poisoning?

[Pixie]

I also don't think that possums are so bad in NZ, and I don't think there are the number that doc say there are.
.

Unbelievable

[Pixie]

the only reason we are the last country to use it is because it is the cheapest.

Bullshit:

Sodium fluoroacetate is used as a pesticide especially for mammalian pest species. Farmers and graziers use the poison to protect pastures and crops from various herbivorous mammals. It is used in New Zealand to control the Common Brushtail Possum and rats.[11] In the United States it is used to kill coyotes. Other countries using 1080 include Australia, Mexico, and Israel.[2]

Western Shield is a project to boost populations of endangered mammals in south-west Australia. The project entails distributing fluoroacetate baited meat from the air to kill predators. Wild dogs and foxes will readily eat the baited meat. Cats pose a greater difficulty as cats aren’t interested in already dead animals. Recently a pilot tried putting small sound generators inside the baits with significant positive results.[citation needed] However, an Australian RSPCA commissioned study criticized 1080 calling it an inhumane killer.[12] Some Western Australian herbivores have, by natural selection, developed partial immunity to the effects of fluoroacetate; this aspect has been used for an advantage in DEC’s wildlife conservation project named Western Shield.

[Pixie]

Further to my last post, the cutting below was the lead article in this morning's Peninsula Post. The whole article rambles on a bit, but the property which the protesters invaded, doing a bit of damage en route apparently belongs to two respected conservationists and retired scientists (who are predictably not Greens). Their crime? Allowing one of their paddocks to be used as a landing pad for a chopper dropping 1080.

The tired old "end justifying the means" cliche? Popularised by despots and lunatics round the world.

Conservationists are interested in the environment.
Greenies are just anti-capitalist

[Pixie]

DoC/AHB etc. "1080 is naturally occurring."
Fact: Plants produce fluoroacetic acid, but manufactured 1080 is sodium
monofluoroacetate. Mr. Eason stated (April 2002) "Anyone comparing
1080 poison with the naturally-occurring substance is stupid."

(From http://www.stop1080poison.com/Page10.html)

Bullshit:

Sodium fluoroacetate occurs naturally in at least 40 plants in Australia, Brazil, and Africa. It was first identified in the poison leaf Dichapetalum cymosum by Marais in 1944.[3][4] As early as 1904, colonists in Sierra Leone used extracts of Chailletia toxicaria which also contains fluoroacetic acid or its salts to poison rats.[5][6] It is believed that the compound is even present in tea leaves in tiny amounts.[7] The Australian pea family Gastrolobium (“poison peas”), have sodium fluoroacetate in the leaf tips and seeds. Its occurrence forces livestock farmers in Western Australia to hand-weed their paddocks.

[NDORFN]

If you consider the MASSIVE deforrestation in NZ for farming, cows have caused infinately more damage to NZ's native environment that possums ever could. Also, if you want an idea how dairy farming is further fucking our country up, come to the Waikato and take a look at the rivers. They're absolutely FUCKED. Full of shit, in the name of milk. And here so many people talk of possums as a threat to the industry without considering for a second the threat that the industry has on the environment. It would take several nukes to erradicate possums. Best we can do is pay hunters (unemployed, work-for-the-dolers etc...) to keep the numbers down and people employed.