10-80 Poisoning in New Zealand

At Last Some Progress on an Interminable Argument

New Zealand is one of the last countries in the world to use 10-80 poison.  The government drops This poison in pellet form from helicopters throughout the bush and farmland to kill off possums--a destructive pest.  For years deer stalkers and others have complained that the poison is also consumed by deer--which then go on to die painful deaths.  Others have complained that birds also are vulnerable to 10-80.

This poison is used sparingly in a few countries of the world  (Australia, some states in the United States, the Galapagos Islands, Israel and Japan).  New Zealand is the biggest user of the poison.

Those opposing the use of 10-80 have never been in a position to prove that deer and birds are susceptible to aerially dropped 10-80.  It is all allegation, conjecture, or mistaken claims of causation.  Or, at least, that is how their "narrative" gets dismissed.

Now, for the first time we are aware of, some comprehensive (albeit, initial) research is being undertaken.

Risible--But They Still Know Best

Zero Risk and Fourteen Tonnes of Trout

And now, a story which will resonate with all readers from around the world who have experienced the scintillating skills of bureaucrats at the top of their game.  

New Zealand is one of the last countries in the world to deploy the poison 1080 in an effort to control noxious pests (possums, stoats, weasels, rats--and so forth).  Whenever it is deployed in a vast industrial scale there are worries about it getting into the food chain.

At such times, not infrequently, the local bureaucrats and government functionaries get caught like the hapless possum in car headlights.  Then they proceed to talk out of both sides of their mouths so volubly that one suspects they have two, even three, tongues.  Here is the latest show from the travelling circus, coming to a neighbourhood near you:

The Department of Conservation ["DoC"] is warning anglers not to eat trout in areas where 1080 poison has been dropped - a reversal of its position seven months ago.  The caution comes just days before the trout fishing season opens on October 1. [NZ Herald]

So, what confronts us ordinary rubes here is a position reversal--a well known move favoured by bureaucrats under pressure.  What's the problem?

Cutting Costs

Governance in the National Parks

The largest landowner in New Zealand by far is the government.  Nearly thirty percent of land area in the country is administered by the Department of Conservation ("DOC").  To be fair, a large proportion of this land is rugged, beautiful mountain ranges which are virtually inhabitable.  National parks are open to the public, provided they keep the rules, most of which are eminently sensible and life protecting. 

Lying behind DOC are the environmental advocacy groups, the most powerful and influential of which is the NZ Forest and Bird Society.  For a number of years DOC operational policies in the national parks has effectively been written and sometimes executed by NZ Forest and Bird.  The influence of perverse environmentalist extremism has too often apparent.  One example is the use of 1080 poison to control, if not eradicate, possums--an introduced species lacking natural predators.

The S-Files

Poisonous Brew's the Tool, Wherein We'll Play the Stupid Fool

Contra Celsum nominates the Department of Conservation for an S-Award

The Department of Conservation (“DOC”) stubbornly continues to drop vast tonnages of the poison 1080 into New Zealand's forests and waterways. It recently was exposed as being responsible for killing rare and protected birds as a consequence of its malfeasance.

Citation:

The Department of Conservation, believed by many to be the enforcement and execution arm of the NZ Forest and Bird Society, was recently responsible for the deaths of seven kea, killed by one of DOC's infamous aerial 1080 poison scatterings.

The kea is a native parrot that is both endangered and protected. A recent DOC aerial 1080 drop in the area of the Fox Glacier killed about half of a kea population being monitored by DOC. This catastrophe of collateral damage has caused yet another review of the policy of scattering the virulent poison 1080 over the countryside in vast quantities.

The review has produced a draft report stating that 1080 drops have probably been devastating to some populations of kea.

New Zealand is one of the last countries in the world to use 1080 poison. We deploy almost the entire world's production of the poison into our forests and waterways very year. The aerial dropping of 1080 is a bureaucratic, but very crude and primitive, plan to combat possums, stoats, and weasels which cause so much damage to flora and fauna.

The collateral damage from the aerial poison drops is extensive, but details and knowledge effectively suppressed. Deer, dogs, and every other mammal have been damaged by this non-targeted, broad brush, crude approach to possum control. The deathly impact upon bird life is unknown, although anecdotal evidence is considerable. Waterways have been persistently exposed to the poison.

Every so often an “incident” occurs which reaches the media, such as the death of the seven keas. If we, as individuals, killed a kea we would be liable to prosecution and punishment. But government-caused-collateral-damage-deaths are another matter. They are legitimatised by being part of a larger, higher cause.

We do not doubt the deleterious effects of possums. We do not doubt that poisons are an effective means of control. We completely reject, however, the crude, broad-brush methods of DOC which end up scattering the deadly poison far and wide, resulting in enormous actual and potential damage to other species.

Possums, weasels and stoats need to be exposed to appropriate poisons using bait stations that only those animals can access, where collateral damage is kept to an absolute minimum, and the poison is prevented from getting into the waterways. DOC needs to lay aside its crude blunderbus and start putting in the hard yards.

Department of Conservation: S-Award, Class II, for actions that are Stupid, Short Sighted and Stupefied