Killing the issue

The Will Harvie written National Portrait: 1080 author Dave Hansford was very short of verifiable scientific facts but full of regurgitated Government poison industry propaganda.

Possums, rats and stoats are described as killers of our native birds while ferrets, cats, weasels, mice, hedgehogs and humans are conveniently forgotten. Claims by anti-1080 activists are rubbished in the article but no credible scientific evidence is provided to prove those claims are wrong or theirs are right.

The Department of Conservation’s June 2016 released Survey of New Zealand told DoC that 66 per cent of respondents were against aerial 1080 operations. DoC and the Hansford article choose to ignore this real fact. The plight of our iconic native alpine parrot, the kea, has been a real discussion point lately. DoC tells us 1080 protects kea but also acknowledges our kea population is declining. Confused? DoC is!

There have been calls, including from the Green Party, for a Kea Recovery Plan. In a 29/4/2017 public statement DoC’s Josh Kemp admitted DoC had no Kea recovery plan. Since 2008, the Government, DoC and OSPRI knowingly killed 13 per cent of all monitored kea during aerial 1080 operations? How can kea be protected while Government agencies, sworn to protect native fauna, keep on killing them? Because it certainly isn’t to my benefit.