ROD AND GUN Poison, Pesticides Affect Exports Of Game Meat

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31089, 18 June 1966, Page 21

ROD AND GUN Poison, Pesticides Affect Exports Of Game Meat

(Specially written for "The Press" by JAMES SIERS)

Exporters of game meat have always lived with the sword of Damocles over them. Now the Department of Agriculture has banned the sale of hares for export, they have been reminded of their precarious existence. Most countries, as is effectively pointed out in the report by the Select Committee on Noxious Animals, have ■ stringent set of regulations concerning meat imports. Where this applies to our farm produce, such as lamb, mutton, beef and veal, the regulations are applied without compromise. When meat with traces of chemical pesticide was sent to the United States, it was promptly sent back. These regulations are more likely to be tightened than relaxed.

Game meat, because it appeals to a restricted luxury market, has not been strictly controlled. Some countries will not allow it at all, but others, such as the Netherlands and West Germany, currently the biggest markets, do not apply their regulations fully.

There is nothing to indicate, as the Select Committee reports, that this state of affairs will be allowed to continue.

To understand such regulations we can look at how similar ones apply in New Zealand. The reason why venison, wild pork or other game meats are not sold here is because the meat cannot be certified as having been killed according to regulations. It would require game to be driven to an abattoir or that it be killed in the presence of a veterinary surgeon, either of which is highly unlikely.

Most overseas countries at present buying game meat from New Zealand also apply regulations which demand certification. The Department of Agriculture has asked game meat exporters not to send hares in the meantime because it does not want to jeopardise any part of this growing lucrative source of foreign income. Hares live where rabbits are found and rabbits (public enemy No. 1) .are subject to poisoning campaigns. Hares are known to take rabbit poison and because they are exported “guts in” so that they can be hung in traditional fashion, there could be more chance of an animal being found with traces of poison in it. Such a case could affect the whole industry and until the departement has found a way of solving the problem, the animals will not be sent away.

One way the problem could be solved is for the department to be notified by the rabbit boards of their intention to poison. Since the South Island is the principal supplier of hares and the country lends itself to organised hunting, it could then be possible to plan drives before the poison was laid. Hares, however, pose only a part of the problem. Opossums are another. Several enterprising exporters have long had their eyes on the plump carcase of this marsupial. The meat is good and it could be obtained efficiently enough, but again, the question of poison is a big problem. At present it is doubtful if the opossum could ever be certified as fit for export for human consumption. It

may be suitable for pet foods; according to one businessman who showed an interest in this aspect the cyanide poison most commonly used on opossum would have no systemic effect on cats and dogs. Deer and wild pigs are poinsoned also. The application is more restricted, especially on deer, but there is always a chance that one may be shot and sent away and analysed. Deer and wild pigs could pick up baits laid for hares.

Another problem is the ingestion of pesticides. It may not be important in remote areas, but a great number of the animals shot for sale are taken from the margin around farms. These deer come on to the grass where it is easy for the farmer to shoot them either with the aid of a spotlight or to catch them in the morning. Stock may be kept out of such paddocks if they have been oversown with pesticides but pigs and deer cannot. As if all this were not enough, the report of the Select Committee also says that should the exports grow to a significant size, home producers might take action and use every means to stop them. It’s up to the industry here to go to considerable trouble to maintain a high standard, and shooters who dislike to see waste should do their part to help.