Battle of the birds

The letter by Lloyd Hanson ( Marlborough Express, August 4, 2017) highlighted the use of unsubstantiated propaganda by our politicians and bureaucrats to cover the killing of our native fauna and other animals during 1080 operations.

An article in the Nelson Mail, (August 2, 2017) quoted Green Party co-leader James Shaw as saying, ‘‘Waves of introduced predators and habitat loss have combined to create a perfect storm of destruction. One third are facing extinction. Birds like the kea or yellow-eyed penguin could disappear in our lifetimes.’’

This unsubstantiated verbal rubbish by the Green Party doesn’t take into account the 13 per cent of kea killed by the Department of Conservation and OSPRI in aerial 1080 operations or the 10 per cent of West Coast fernbirds and 25 rock wren that died in the Kahurangi National Park. DOC acknowledge they don’t have a ‘‘recovery programme’’ in place for the kea. How can they when they kill around 13 per cent of them?

James Shaw, apparently, is totally unaware of the recent statement made by Forest & Bird’s Kevin Hague that set net fishing is a major contributor to the declining populations of penguins, including the tellow-eyed penguin. Apparently the set net is a predator!

An article by Nikki Sturrock in the June/July 2017 edition of Motor Caravanner contained disturbing DOC information and reveals the hypocrisy. The family were told by an Arthur’s Pass DOC staffer that there were too many kea and they upset tourists by ripping up their tents! Further inquiries to glean more kea information were made to a Kea Conservation Trust team present at the time. The family were told that kea eggs and eggs of other native birds held in captivity are ‘‘pricked’’ to keep numbers down!

How can DOC claim kea numbers are falling when they themselves are adding to the destruction of the species? So much for the Battle for Our Birds, what a waste of public money. Why do we need ‘‘blitzkrieg’’ 1080 poison operations all over our country when there are human predators within the government agencies that spread it?