Management of thar urged

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33929, 23 August 1975, Page 17

Management of thar urged

Thar could be maintained on highcountry land under a correctly controlled game-management plan, said <■ Mr A. D. McLaughlin, of the New Zealand Deerstalkers’ Association.

Mr A. D. McLaughlin, a member of the association’s thar research committee, said in a letter to “The Press” that he opposed the Forest Service’s policy of thar extermination in the high-country. “I am convinced that areas of our high-country can carry some of our precious game animals under a correctly controlled game-

management plan,” he said. “Without exception, every country in the world which has game animals controls and manages the herds without plans for extermination.” There was already a thar herd under a gamemanagement plan at Lilybank Station; and the Forest Service could see that research and management programmes would show it something it did not want to see. Mr McLaughlin said. This was one reason why its attack on thar seemed to be concentrating on Lilybank. The Deerstalkers’ Association wanted to conserve thar in New Zealand in numbers which the country could support without damage to the environment. “It amazes me that the Government can spend a fortune on the “Come Alive” programme, with its emphasis on sport, and at the same time exterminate game animals which are the goal of the sporting hunter,” Mr McLaughlin said.