The tragedy of NZ’s eerily silent forests

I’ve been in New Zealand for nine months now and I am in just about every Facebook group against 1080. I’m quite horrified and actually depressed about the stories photos and videos I have seen.

I’ve noticed the media here never tells both sides of this controversial issue.

The only news I see is about vandalism, which seems very unfair considering most people in these Facebook groups are professionals, retirees and just descent law-abiding citizens concerned about the health of this planet.

My biggest concerns are not only the immense cruelty and suffering of the victims but the hundreds of pets that are killed yearly, and of course the many birds and insects that feed on the carcasses, and how this affects the eco system, plus the dead animals that get washed into waterways.

I’m an aged-care support worker and a few of my elderly clients in their 90s who were ex-hunters told me how disgusted they were about 1080 back in the 1960s.

One client described to me how he used to hunt at the Lewis Pass, where birds were in great abundance, and a week after the drop he returned and find dead birds everywhere. ‘‘The forests were silent. You could not hear one bird,’’ he said.

I’m considering moving back to my country as I don’t feel it’s very safe here for my pets. The forests in New Zealand are eerily and tragically silent. Louise Watson Lyttleton