Protest draws big crowd
Claims of birds being killed and a Government which is ‘‘not listening’’ rang out, as more than
300 people took to the streets of Timaru to protest against the use of 1080 on Saturday.
Protesters held up signs saying ‘‘Stop the drop’’ and ‘‘Department of Corruption’’, ‘‘1080 kills everything’’, with some dressed in hazard suits.
Protester Paula Cranshaw said the use of 1080 was ‘‘inhumane’’ and ‘‘indiscriminate’’.
‘‘It just annihilates everything,’’ Cranshaw said.
Protester Eddie Laurent said he believed there needed to be an ‘‘open debate’’ about the use of
1080, while Brian Basset-Smith said the Government was not listening to the concerns of its people.
‘‘I’m really happy with the turnout,’’ Basset-Smith said. ‘‘It’s a step in the right direction, but we really need to escalate it. The sleeping giant needs to be woken up.’’
Protester Jan Anker said the thought of 1080 being used across conservation land made her sick.
‘‘It makes me ashamed of our country,’’ Anker said. The poison is used to kill pest animals.
The use of 1080 has been supported by a number of organisations, including Department of Conservation, Federated Farmers and Forest and Bird.
In 2011, a report from the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment supported not only the use of 1080 to protect our forests, but also said there should be more use of it.
It is a key component of DOC’s Battle for Our Birds campaign, which covers more than 800,000 hectares of conservation land.
Forest & Bird South Canterbury committee member Kimberley Collins said the turnout represented a vocal minority of the population.
‘‘Without 1080 our native birds would be extinct,’’ she said.
Collins said 1080 drops, particularly those from helicopters, were very precisely targeted, while the poison posed no threat to the country’s waterways.
‘‘1080 is very soluble and dilutes in water quickly. New Zealand’s drinking water standards say the maximum amount of 1080 allowed is 2.0 parts per billion, and that has never been exceeded.
‘‘By comparison, 1080 occurs naturally in tea at a higher rate. Niwa have even doing experiments where they deliberately put pellets in a small stream and the 1080 was undetectable after eight hours,’’ she said. Collins said there was a battle on to protect the country’s native bird life, and simple bait traps would not be able to cover the required area.
‘‘1080 is cost-efficient and has
50 years of research behind it,’’ she said. ‘‘The anti-1080 movement is steeped in misinformation.’’
‘‘Without 1080 our native birds would be extinct.’’ Kimberley Collins, Forest & Bird