Knocking down the ‘holy cows’ of 1080’s benefits

EUGENIE Sage has stated that government funding for the Game Animal Council may be cut, partly because this organisation has had the effrontery to question the rationale for the New Zealand aerial 1080 programme, otherwise known as the ‘‘Battle for the Birds’’.

A government that suppresses opinion which runs contrary to its own policy is called a fascist government, and this appears to be what Ms Sage wishes to be part of.

It is clear she is no scientist, as her cultlike worship of ‘‘The Science’’ is in itself wholly unscientific.

Many are the holy cows that have been held up as ‘‘scientifically proven fact’’ for decades, only to be knocked down when a better study comes along — think the oncetouted ‘‘benefits’’ of smoking, the ‘‘evils’’ of even a small amount of butter and the many drugs taken off the market once side effects are revealed.

The credo that sprinkling vast quantities of highly poisonous 1080 over New Zealand wilderness areas will achieve elimination of predators and ‘‘bring back the birds’’ is backed by science that is flimsy and, in many cases, wholly inadequate. But few have read the original papers or scrutinised them impartially, and certainly not the Green Party.

Fiona M. F. McQueen

Glenorchy

[Abridged]