80,005 Signatures In Petition Against 1080

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28984, 27 August 1959, Page 14

80,005 Signatures In Petition Against 1080

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON. August 26. A mammoth petition which weighed 641 b and contained the signatures of Douglas Thomas Johnston, of Wellington, secretary of the New Zealand Deerstalkers’ Association, and 80.004 others, was presented to Parliament today by Mr B. V. Cooksley (Opposition. Wairarapa). The petition called on the Government to cease immediately the use of 1080 or associated poisons fc.r the attempted extermination of.deer in New Zealand, and to i grant a public inquiry into the issue. ; The petition was referred to a , Select Committee. The petition expressed concern . at the fear that the usage of 1080 poison would become widespread in the future, and strongly I opposed its use till a great deal more research had been carried ! out on its effects on wild life and birds. It was felt that the Government’s policy of deer ex- , termination was physically and economically unattainable. and . that the use of 1080 poison to assist in that policy was uni justifiable at the present level of knowledge. “ In spite of 30 years of ' attempted extermination, as many, if not more, deer are now being destroyed each year as when the campaign first began.” said the petition. “It is impossible to assess the worth of the ' campaign to date, and no organisation exists to guide and assess the worth of future activities. “It has only recently been officially ackowledged that animalkilling campaigns, though having the temporary effect of reducing numbers, can have very undesirable long-term effects through the stimulatory or ‘farming’ effects that are probable in any random reduction operation. “Because of the over-all inaccessibility of deer habitats, it is impossible to exterminate demand this is freely acknowledged by the exponents of extermination policy. It is. therefore, apparent that to continm with such a policy is totally unrealistic and that the only possible method of approach is for us to learn how to manage our deer herds to a stage where the least possible damage is sustained. “The Government kills about 50.000 deer a year at a cost of more than £lOO.OOO. The law of diminishing returns must operate. and for any given two-fold increase in effort a similar increase in kill results cannot be expected. “Using the lowest estimate of the number of deer in New Zealand and allowing the same expenditure, it would cost at least £400,000 a year merely to harvest the herds.” The petition urged the Gov-

ernment to set up an independent authority to assess the worth of research to date, to give leads for profitable future lines of research, and to maintain a vigilant watch on all aspects of the conservation field in New Zealand. It claimed that New Zealand must be capable of training its own animal ecologists, and that at least one New Zealand university must establish a department in animol ecology, and that no worthwhile plan to deal with noxious animals could be formulated unless it was based on scientific research. “From the purely sporting viewpoint, we oppose the use of 1080 poison because it is a repugnant method of destroying game animals in the same way as the dynamiting of trout or the shooting of wildfowl on water.” the petition said. The continued use of the poison would mean the closing up of large blocks of country. The minimum lethal dose for one deer would kill 500 small birds. The greater the dosage taken by the animal, the greater the hazard from eating the meat, and with such a slow-acting poison as 1080 it was fully possible for a deer to live several hours and cover considerable distances at any stage of which it would fall to a hunter's rifle.