Poison seen as danger to children

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33870, 16 June 1975, Page 7

Poison seen as danger to children

The Cheviot Domain Board believes it is quite justified in having poison laid for oppossums in the popular Cheviot Hills Domain. One or two local residents do not.

A correspondent to the editor of “The Press,” "Worried Parent," was horrified to read that the Cheviot Domain Board intended to lay deadly poison in the Cheviot Hills Domain. “This domain is on the outskirts of Cheviot township and township and other children have free access to it.

“If the troubles caused by' opossums are really so; great, surely some other! method could have been; found to deal with them,; which did not endanger] children.

“It is not good enough to I say that the poison will be I put out of their reach — we I all know what children are.” ; j The correspondent asked if the board could legally I lay poison in a public place I such as the domain, and for (the board to “justify publicly this most unfortunate I decision.” ALREADY DONE The chairma. of the do-; (main board (Mr J. R.; I Abernethy) said the poison-; Ing had been done already/ [for one week only. The board had decided to

lay poison because it intended to plant 11 acres of recently-cleared land with young trees, and considered! it would have to reduce the; opossum population because' of the damage the animals would have done to the' young trees. This type of eradication! had been done before, Mr; Abernethy said. TREES STRIPPED Before the board arranged two years ago to eradicate some of the multitude of opossums in Cheviot Hills Domain, the damage to trees was something that had to be seen to be believed. “Some trees, even large, ones, were stripped completely of bark, and in some cases the trees had died. “The operator chosen by the board two years ago cleaned up something over 200 opossums at Cheviot Hills, both on our property, and the adjoining landowners’. “However, such is the ability of the opossum to re-] produce, we were back to large numbers in just two! years, so large-scale removal | had to be done”. Mr Abernethy said that!

i areas of national park or re-i serves were poisoned, some! even by aerial drops of poi-j son. “So the Cheviot board.! like its larger neighbours,! can legally eradicate opos-J sums. After all. they arel classified as a noxious pest! here in New Zealand". Careful precautions had been taken. An approved operator, Mr L. Dalton, was instructed to place the poison up in the trees by ladder in the late afternoons ' and evenings. Al! the opos-} i sums which had succumbed Uto the bait and also the /unused bait were to be rei 1 moved early the next mornting. >1 “Notification of the time of eradication by this operator was given to the local ■< school master, who passed! 'the message to all local; I children", Mr Abernethv* [‘said. . “It was published in the) • local papers, and signs were, to be placed at strategic; . places in and around the do-' ] main. Further, the operator, was going to be at the do-; . main for the full time he; ! was eradicating opossums. . However, not all the opos-' ' sums had been killed. r “Either owing to the; > noise caused by the tree-fel-! • ling contractor’s plant, or] because the opossums had a' , sixth sense that they were! .in for eradication, they moved out r “So the only poisoning !was done right at the bacK > of the domain board’s territ-i ijory and in the adjoining' 11owners’ areas, where I be-; ■lieve about 75 to 100 opos-! J sums were cleaned up.

i He said it was not the do- ! main board's policy to reply ito unsigned letters, but the .looard had felt that the letter ! by “Worried Parent" did justify a reply because the use •I of poisons was very scaring Ito the everyday person, and ! more so to those with famil lies.