Thread: Warning Distressing and Disturbing Photographs- 1080 Poison

Originally Posted by johnd

I think the hype on 1080 is misguided.
The VERY first thing you have to realise is that it IS A POISON. That means it wont kill things politely and let them rest on a feathered pillow in a quiet room to slowly and eventually shuffle from this mortal coil. Its a POISON they all kill things badly.
Even when we were knocking off naughty prisoners for murder they used a POISON.
Its not just 1080 that should be getting the flak here. ALL poisons will kill thats what they do.
When people say we need a better poison I just roll my eyes.
What we do need is less predators of our wildlife, and a way to achieve that on a large scale. To hopefully prevent the decline of some of our endangered species.
Knocking 1080 is an easy cop out, yes we know its bad ... read the above, its a fucken poison!!
The most cost effective method to kill target species is to apply it well, and accurately. That is what needs to be focused on here. With all the anti 1080 protest thats gone on for the last umpteen years here in NZ, what has been achieved?

End of rant.

John you are not at all correct in your statement 'It's a poison they all kill things badly'. For many years Cyanide has been used in various forms for poisoning possums. It kills very quickly (seconds) by acting on the part of the brain that controls breathing and at the same time binding oxygen. Before that Strychnine was used for rabbits. It also killed quickly. Phosphorous was used to poison wild pigs. It killed slowly with an agonising death. 1080 is used because it is stable in cereal baits and persists in the bodies of poisoned creatures for secondary killing.
The biggest problem with poison dropped from the air over bush is that up to 50% lands and sits in trees were it targets the birds we are supposed to save. Don't believe the official line - for example that possums predate on birds - Possums cant digest meat. When did you ever see a possum eating road kill?
Continuous cycles of poisoning and predator population recovery/explosion cannot go on forever. Permanent kill trap barrier lines and humane poison bait stations are the only long term solution for areas without exclusion fences.
Addressing your other false assertions above,
When chemical execution takes place a sedative is first administered along with a lignocaine drug. Even the Nazi's used a humane gas - Zyclon B which is Cyanide based.
Perhaps instead of 'rolling your eyes' you should open them. If you think that inflicting intentional cruelty and death to our fellow creatures is right, then you have something severely wrong with your moral compass my friend.