Moyle to seek funds for rabbit control

Press, 7 October 1988, Page 2

Moyle to seek funds for rabbit control

PA Wellington The Government should spend more than $5 million a year on rabbit control measures as partial compensation for refusing to import the disease, myxomatosis, a special task force says. The Minister of Agriculture, Mr Moyle, said yesterday a submission would go to the Cabinet supporting the recommendations of the task force, which had since April been studying the rabbit problem in semi-arid areas of the South Island. The report recommended that the Ministers of Agriculture and the Environment annually appropriate $5,169 million for rabbit control in semiarid regions only. A 1983 review of pest destruction recommended a phased withdrawal of funds to be completed in 1993-94. The Pest Destruction Council consequently recommended introduc-

tion of myxomatosis for rabbit control. But the Government decided against the disease after an environmental impact audit by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment in 1987. The task force was a direct result of the audit. “We propose that the Government continue to invest in rabbit management primarily for resource conservation, but also as partial compensation for the denial of myxomatosis,” the report said.

The task force, headed by Emeritus Professor John McGraw, confirmed that there was a very difficult problem in a relatively small area. “The basic question has always been ‘myxomatosis or money’ and having decided, with good cause, against myxomatosis, we now have to face up to the alternative,” Mr Moyle and the Associate

Minister for the Environment, Mr Woollaston, said in a joint statement. In most of New Zealand, natural constraints, such as predators rather than pest destruction boards, kept rabbit populations in check. But about 280,000 ha of land in semi-arid regions, such as Central Otago, were a very suitable habitat for rabbits and natural constraints were not enough to limit numbers. Use of poison baits to control them led to selective breeding of “neophobic” rabbits that avoided taking bait. The task force recommended establishment of a Ministerial committee to oversee funding, with consultative groups at the regional government level. In all semi-arid regions the frequency of poison baiting would be slowed and shooting, gassing, trapping and hunting with dogs used as alternatives.