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Bolt guns

People in Invercargill and throughout New Zealand are shocked and disgusted at the revelation that Invercargill council is killing dogs with captive bolt guns. A video provided to animal welfare group Paw Justice shows the dog with his head restrained between bars. The animal control officer then shoots the dog in the head and, as blood spurts onto the floor, appears to strike the dog’s head with his boot.

The New Zealand Veterinary Association states clearly that the preferred method of euthanasia is sedation followed by an intravenous injection of an overdose of barbiturate. This prevents the animal becoming distressed and ensures a painless death. The metal bars and the approach of a man with a bolt gun achieves neither goal.

Animal behaviour expert, Dr Elsa Flint, states that a bolt gun cannot be considered a humane method of euthanasia.

Dog rescue centres and councilrun pounds are overflowing with adoptable animals.Thousands of companion animals are killed every year because breeders keep supplying puppies and kittens, while homeless animals miss out. Councils need to ensure they comply with the NZVA recommendations, and we all need to ensure that companion animals are desexed, and most importantly make the choice to adopt rather than buy animals from breeders or pet stores. Ashley Fruno Associate Director People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Australia

Water quality

The Green Party has been campaigning for clean waterways for 27 years. The Southland Times made water quality the number one issue for the 2011 election campaign for our region, but it resulted in no improvement. The National Party claims things are improving but that is not what we see locally. Toxic algae is blooming in the Waituna Lagoon, and our estuaries are eutrophying. We have lost a good number of our swimming sites and some rivers are toxic for our pets to drink.

All of us are responsible to raising our water quality. Towns and cities have a part to play, but urban areas only impact on 1 percent of our waterways. It is our pastoral land use that has the most significant influence. The Green Party will introduce charges for water use and nitrate leaching. If we don’t add a value to water then it will continue to be overused and exploited as a free and often subsidised resource. If we don’t recognise the source of the vast amounts of nitrogen that enters our waterways and drinking water then we won’t address the root cause of our problems.

Our levies will have a minimal impact on those farmers who are already farming sustainably and the money raised will be directed to where it is needed. Recognising good practice is important and helping those who underperform is essential. We will not turn things around by doing more of the same. Party Vote Green for constructive change and swimmable and drinkable water. Rochelle Surendran Green candidate for Invercargill

Climate change

Notably lacking from the election debate is the looming imperative of constructive NZ government leadership to start reducing global (and our) carbon emissions by 2020 to have any hope of meeting the 2 degrees warming target agreed at the Paris climate change talks. National’s flagship 2008 Business Growth Agenda relied heavily on expanding the oil and gas sector, partly by removing ‘‘impediments’’ such as the main principle of the Resource Management Act.

When this failed in 2015 Bill English proposed to replace the entire RMA with a new Act, putting economic growth ahead of the environment.

Meanwhile the dairy industry has expanded and intensified with predictable results.Starting to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions inescapably means fewer cows - ideally by switching to higher value organic milk production wherever possible (fewer cows and increased income for farmers). But Fonterra has no plans to collect or process organic milk in Southland, so it can’t happen. Poor leadership from the industry and government, not individual farmers, is to blame here.

National plans to meet our Paris emissions target by buying up to $2 billion of carbon credits -an enormous taxpayer-funded subsidy to polluters which will not reduce our emissions and sends the wrong signals to polluters.

Nine years of climate change neglect will only continue under National’s ‘‘business as usual’’ leadership. The 2020 deadline will not go away. The time for change has come and it’s urgently needed. Douglas Black Invercargill