Thread: Goodbye possums, rats and stoats

Originally Posted by Tahr

Well, yeah, we have been that dumb. No one has come up with anything more effective, cost efficient or safer yet - and that's a fact. But with money and research it need not stay like that.
I've got a blood disease that would have killed me 20 years ago, now its managed and I will die with it rather than of it. I have a lot of faith in science.

Now come on Tahr. The NZ Fur industry has been suppressed for decades. Alternative schemes for dealing with possums in particular have been mooted including at the ERMA review, the Ulva island brodifacoum poisoning debacle, forest parks, exotic forests and farms.

Common typical spin emanating from the Animal Health Board and DoC and even some complicit Regional Councils have made media claims repeatedly that 1080 is only used in REMOTE RUGGED AND INACCESSIBLE AREAS,, and we all know what bullshit this really is.

So don't try to tell us that money and research magically suddenly appearing is actually going to happen and that all the ills of past desecration of the forests by 1080 are going to go away. Cripes, they're safeguarding themselves with a 34 year (at least) buffer before being called to account. How very convenient after 50 plus years of failure and spin!.

Those of us who have been advocating for decades to have exactly that (funding and research provided and directed at using systems other than 1080) happen are for very good reason now skeptical of such comment. How come our brave innovative government is only going to contribute a fraction of what funding is required while at the same time going to continue providing over a hundred million per year to the existing failures in DoC and OSPRI?

I note that the NZ Fur Council recently offered their support to trap possums rats and stoats AGAIN, and AGAIN, asking for more allocation of DoC administered land to operate trappers in. Will DoC and OSPRI again stand in their way I wonder?